


Martyrs

by QueenSarge



Category: Banana Bus Squad
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-22
Updated: 2018-03-21
Packaged: 2019-04-06 07:31:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 27
Words: 52,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14052009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenSarge/pseuds/QueenSarge
Summary: Evan?” Craig voices after a while, and once he receives a hum in response, he continues. “You never told me the whole story of what happened with you and Tyler,” he points out, as Evan tenses up. “I only experienced the aftermath of all of that.”Evan chuckles nervously. “You sure you want to know?” he asks hesitantly, poking the at the food in the pan.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Adding character tags as I go because I have no damn idea who's in this, it's been so long since I've seen this thing.

After everything that had happened, Evan had begun to appreciate lazy mornings. Waking up in the early hours in his warm comfortable bed with Brock glued to his side, lying for a while in blissful peace as he listened to his breathing and the birds chirping outside, feeling his boyfriend’s heartbeat beneath his fingertips. He’d press a gentle kiss to his temple, before pulling himself out of bed, careful not to wake him, before slinking off to the bathroom to take a shower before he started breakfast.

 

Craig, on the other hand, hated them. There was nothing enjoyable about waking up with his face buried in his pillow in his cold empty bed, completely alone, desperately wishing that a certain someone was still around to lie beside him. He missed the mornings when he wasn’t alone, when he’d wake up to a pair of arms wrapped around him and warm breath on the back of his neck, and he’d loudly groan into his pillow and wrap the blankets tighter around him as he imagined him next to him again.

 

After a while, he’d sigh dramatically before crawling out of bed, tugging on the first item of clothes he’d find before trudging into the kitchen, only to sigh again when Evan would smile brightly at him. “I made you coffee,” he hums, gesturing to the pot of coffee on the counter before turning back to the bacon and eggs he was cooking on the stove.

 

Craig grumbled out a quiet “thanks” as he poured himself a cup, rubbing his tired eyes with one hand, and then rubbing the back of his neck. He was vaguely aware of Evan watching him as he takes a sip and leans back against the counter, and waits for the same question he was asked every morning.

 

“How are you feeling?”

 

“I’m fine, Evan,” Craig replies, and when Evan doesn’t immediately turn his concerned gaze away, he adds “Really. I’m okay. You don’t need to worry so much.”

 

“You’re my little brother-”

 

“S _tep_ -brother.”

 

“ _Little brother_ , and I’m always going to worry about you,” Evan says and lightly nudges him, before finally turning back to their breakfast again, missing the fond smile that Craig beamed into his mug.

 

The kitchen descends into a comfortable silence between them, and Craig takes a seat at the table and watches Evan work, listening to the sizzling of the bacon on the pan, slowly losing himself in his thoughts as he remembers everything that had happened to them over the past few months. He frowns to himself.

 

“Evan?” Craig voices after a while, and once he receives a hum in response, he continues. “You never told me the whole story of what happened with you and Tyler,” he points out, as Evan tenses up. “I only experienced the aftermath of all of that.”

 

Evan chuckles nervously. “You sure you want to know?” he asks hesitantly, poking the at the food in the pan.

 

“Considering what happened?  _Yes_ ,” Craig insists with a pout and folds his arms across the table, looking up at Evan expectantly.

 

Evan sighs, switching off the stove as he finished with breakfast, serving it all onto three plates and hiding the extra in the microwave for when Brock woke up later. “Okay,” he relents, handing one plate to Craig as he takes a seat across from him. “But I have to warn you, there’s a lot of this story that I wasn’t actually present for and only know about because Tyler or Brock told me, so you might have to help me fill in the blanks in some places,” he says, and Craig nods eagerly, glad to finally be getting an explanation.

 

“Do you remember that time we went out together three or four months ago, and we were going to stop and get dinner before we went home? And we were arguing about who was going to pay for it, and I wanted to treat you because I’m your big brother and that’s what big brothers do, they take care of their little brothers,” Evan pauses to lean forward and ruffle Craig’s hair, grinning at the annoyed pout he got in response. “But you were being a stubborn little shit like always and kept insisting that you could pay for it on your own…”

 

* * *

 

“No, Evan, seriously. I can take care of it,” Craig exclaimed with a bright grin, whipping out his wallet as they walked down the empty street.

 

It was late in the evening, and the sun had just set and the night was beginning to grow dark and cool. The streetlights flickered on the hour before, casting an orange glow on the sidewalk, and creating long, dark shadows that crept down every corner. Not wanting to be out  _too_  late, they had decided to take a shortcut to their restaurant of choice through a sparsely used alleyway, and as far as they were aware at that moment, it was only the two of them around.

 

Evan rolled his eyes. “Sure you could, but that doesn’t mean I’m letting you,” he insisted, watching with an affectionate smirk as Craig pouted at him. “Now put that thing away before-”

 

Suddenly a man in a hood with a bandanna covering the lower half of his face lunged at them, seemingly out of nowhere, and was quick to pin Craig to the wall, knife at his throat. “Shouldn’t be wavin’ that ‘round, boy,” he mocks through his thick British accent. Craig stares at him wide eyed, and squirms under his grip as he tries to distance himself from the knife as much as possible, but his attempts were fruitless.

 

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” Evan hisses at him, glaring him down as he watched off to the side, fists clenching and unclenching as he tried to decide whether or not he’d be able to pull the mugger off his brother without Craig getting hurt in the process.

 

The mugger immediately turns at the sound of Evan’s voice, eyeing him up and down before turning back to Craig. “Got a hell of a sexy friend there,” he notes, quickly snatching Craig’s wallet from his hands.

 

“Hey!” Craig exclaims against his better judgement, and without thinking of how much of a stupid idea it was, begins trying to claw at his stolen wallet to get it back, in spite of the fact that he had a knife at his throat. While Craig was distracting him, Evan warily and carefully inched closer.

 

The mugger is fast, however, and whips the knife from his throat to shove it as deep into Craig’s shoulder as it can get, muttering out a “Hold that,” as he turned to face Evan, lightly pecking his cheek and turning back to yank his knife out of Craig’s shoulder and fleeing fast enough for his hood to tip back, revealing a bright purple head of hair.

 

Craig’s bloodcurdling scream would haunt Evan for years to come, and he’d never be able to erase the mental image of the blade disappearing into his flesh from his mind. His breath hitched and his heart stopped as he watched Craig’s expression twist in pain, his scream slowly morphing into a distressed whine. He was completely frozen in shock, and it wasn’t until he felt the ballsy kiss to his cheek that he snapped out of it, just in time to see him yank the knife out and sprint away.

 

His first instinct was to run after him and catch him, and Evan hadn’t put much thought into what he was going to do after that, but he knew that he couldn’t let him get away with stabbing his little brother.

 

He didn’t get more than a few feet away before Craig’s broken voice stopped him. “ _Evan!_ ” he cried out, hand tightly clutching his shoulder. “You’re just going to  _fucking leave me here?! Really Evan_?!”

 

Evan glanced back at Craig and watched as he slumped down against the wall to the ground, looking up at him as if he’d betrayed him, and when Evan glanced back to where the mugger had run off to, he found that he was already gone. His heart sank when he realised that he had let him get away, shoulders still tense with anger, but he knew that Craig was right and he shouldn’t have tried to abandon him to begin with.

 

“No, I’m here, it’s okay,” Evan says softly, and sits down on the ground next to him, shrugging off his jacket. He balled it up, and gently tugged Craig’s hand away from his wound so he could hold the jacket against his injury instead.

 

“Really?! You consider  _this_  okay?!” Craig hisses, gesturing to his shoulder with one hand and gripping onto the jacket with the other. His eyes were clenched shut but tears were still streaming down his face. “This is as far from okay as anything could get!”

 

“I know, but keep that pressed against the wound, and I’m going to call you an ambulance, okay?” Evan tells him, somehow managing to keep his voice steady and calm in spite of how panicked he was feeling and how hard his heart was beating with worry, and pulls out his phone, dialing the number and holding it up to his ear in one smooth action. “You’re going to be okay.”

 

Craig merely nods, and by the time Evan had hung up the phone, he was beginning to drift out of consciousness. “Hey hey hey no, Craig, stay awake, stay with me,” he begged, shuffling closer to him, gently grabbing his face and lightly slapping at his cheeks to keep him from blacking out. “I need you to keep me company until the ambulance comes, okay?” he tries to reason, but he could tell from the look in his eyes that the words weren’t registering in Craig’s mind. “No no no no, you need to stay awake. You can’t- don’t-  _don’t leave me_!” his words came out as a broken sob, and he only cried harder as Craig ever so gently gripped his wrist before his head fell to the side and he passed out.

 

When the ambulance came moments later, the paramedics arrived to the scene of Evan gently holding Craig in his arms, his jaw locked, and red rimmed eyes staring off into space in a silent fury.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's 27 chapters and I already hate my own writing. This is gonna be a long night.

He was hell bent on revenge, Tyler knew that much. Evan wasn’t exactly good at concealing his feelings, not when he felt them so strongly. Evan was equally as frustrated that he had no clue where or how to find the guy, even with such a specific description of him. “How fucking hard can it be to find a guy with  _purple_  hair?!” Evan yelled at the hospital room, hands tightly clutching at his hair as he mindlessly paced back and forth. **  
**

Tyler watched him in silence, relaxing in the chair he’d conveniently moved from its original spot so that he was between a sleeping Craig and the door. Evan hadn’t brought it up largely due to the fact that he wanted Craig safe as much as Tyler did, which conveniently covered up the sinking feeling that maybe there was more going on between Tyler and Craig than anyone wanted to admit.

It was odd how he and Evan felt so differently about the encounter, but Tyler guessed it was because he hadn’t been there that he wasn’t more upset. Evan was rather pissed it happened at all, but Tyler was eternally grateful that Craig was okay.  He spent his time going over the nurse’s words while Evan ranted.  _‘He should only be unconscious for a day or so at most, we didn’t really give him too much anesthesia’_. He was dragged from his train of thought when Evan suddenly addressed him by name. “Tyler! Are you even listening?” Evan snapped, seemingly sated when blue eyes flashed back up to meet Evan’s brown ones.

He shifted in his chair, trying to pour more focus into Evan’s rambling. “How the hell am I gonna pay for this? We have no decent insurance, I barely make enough money to get by as it is,” he was clearly stressed, and Tyler knew one way to remedy this. He got up, crossing the room and wrapping Evan in a hug. Evan’s voice is quiet and muffled against Tyler’s chest. “God, Tyler, what am I gonna do?”

Tyler pauses to think, sighing and resting his chin against Evan’s head. “We can… fuck, rob places? Get a second job?” his suggestions almost sound sarcastic. Tyler just shakes it off, stepping away to relax in his chair again. “You’ll figure something out,” he mumbles, voice slurring with sleepiness.

Evan lets out an indignant chuckle. “Yeah, maybe I could bury a dollar and hope it grows into a money tree,” he drawls, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall opposite Craig’s bed, frowning harshly at him. “This shouldn’t have happened. I should have stopped this.”

Tyler groans. “Evan, stop thinking like that. You’ll get one of us killed. Focus on the other shit. Craig’s okay, and we need to find out a way to get a shitload of money fast,” he points out. His eyes flash between Craig and Evan, more so drawn to Craig.

“I’ll buy a lottery ticket on the way home,” Evan snarks, Tyler’s words playing and replaying over and over again in his mind.  _Rob places_ … “…Some people keep money in safes, right? In their homes?” he asks, playing around with an idea in his mind.

Tyler’s halfway across the room when his eyes narrow in suspicion. “Yeah, but I mean…there’s usually locks and shit,” Tyler confirms, stopping in front of Evan. He doesn’t once ask, saying nothing more on the issue other than a mumbled “Be safe,” and a gentle kiss to his forehead.

“This is really not the time for puns, Tyler,” Evan groans, but is more annoyed at the fact that he hadn’t considered the fact that safes were usually locked, and quietly tried to come up with a plan B.

Tyler offers nothing more than a silent grin, ruffling Evan’s hair and going to sit down. “You know what I meant. Don’t leave me to take care of all this shit,” he stops to gesture to Craig “by myself.” He collapses in the chair, obviously more tired than he was letting on.

Evan is silent for a moment, lost in thought, but his anger slowly fades away, his shoulder slumping. “You better take care of him, if something happens to me,” he says, watching Craig with a frown. “And I’m not saying something  _will_  happen to me, but… you better take care of him.”

Tyler glares up at him. “Dude. Seriously? You know I’d never let anything happen to him,” it slips out as easy as breathing, and Tyler’s face is so serious it leaves room for doubt that he even knew he said it aloud.

“I used to say the same thing,” Evan says, voice barely above a whisper, and he steps away from the wall with a sigh. “I need to go and figure some things out. Keep an eye on him, and call me the second he wakes up.”

Tyler watches him. “Be careful,” he almost leaves it at that, but at the last second adds,“You know you don’t need to tell me to look after him. I’m going to anyways,” he points out.

For the first time since the mugging, Evan allows himself to flash him a small smile. “I know,” he says fondly as he exits the room, walking with purpose, leaving Tyler alone with Craig.

It’s unclear how much time Tyler spends panicking, shifting in his chair and rubbing Craig’s hand before he eventually fell asleep, but it was definitely too long. He immediately felt bad about falling asleep, jerking awake as soon as his eyes shut and finding that three hours had passed.

“Hey,” Craig greets him with a soft, but weak smile, hand clasped around Tyler’s. “You’re cute when you sleep,” he adds, and it’s immediately clear that he’s still a little high from the anesthesia.

Tyler smiles at him the second he hears Craig’s voice. “So are you,” he returns, shifting in his chair to face him. “How are you feeling?” he asks, worried eyes flickering over Craig.

“I feel like I’ve just been stabbed,” he grins, and then chuckles a little at his own joke. “But honestly? I’ve been better. I’m surprised I lived through that…” he adds, lightly biting his lips as they tugged downwards into a frown. “I thought for sure that that was going to be the end of me…”

Tyler chuckles softly at this. “You drama queen,” he scoffs, getting up to get the remote for the TV hanging on the wall opposite Craig, handing it to him and very lightly kissing his cheek.

“I think I’m allowed to be a drama queen when I was just  _stabbed_  Tyler,” Craig says, taking the remote from him, and ignoring the way his cheeks were beginning to heat up, and the pang in his chest knowing that a kiss on the cheek was all he could ever get from him. “People die from that, you know,” he adds, flicking the TV on to a random station.

Tyler scoffs at this. “Yeah, from fucking bleeding to death! You’ll be fine,” he replies, walking back to his seat and sitting a little closer to Craig this time.

“Yeah,  _now_ … but back in that alleyway when I was sitting on the sidewalk, I thought I was done for…” he explains, looking down at his lap and ignoring the B movie playing on TV. “Evan was panicking, even if he was trying not to, I know him well enough to know when he’s panicking, and he never panics, so I knew it was bad… and I just thought that that was it,” he shrugs.

Tyler reaches over, grabbing Craig’s hand. “Everything will be fine, Craig. Evan knows what he’s doing, and even if he didn’t I’m not leaving you,” he squeezes Craig’s hand. “I promise,” he adds quietly.

Craig’s expression softens and he squeezes his hand back. “Okay,” he replies softly, and at the mention of Evan, begins looking around the room, disappointed that he didn’t see him. “Where is he anyway?”

Tyler pauses, digging out his phone and texting Evan that Craig was awake. “Uh, he left. Said he had to take care of shit, and to text him when you woke up,” he shrugs, seeming to trust Evan.

“He didn’t tell you where he was going?” Craig asks with a frown, silently wondering why he’d run off somewhere without telling Tyler where he was going. He pauses for a moment to try and figure out what he could possibly be doing, and then it hits him. “…Did he tell you that he tried to chase after the guy that stabbed me?”

Tyler looks up from his phone. “Nope,” he pauses to think. “What would’ve made him that mad?” he asks quietly. “I don’t want to think he’d just up and leave you bleeding in an alley,” he looks upset by this.

Craig shrugs. “I don’t know, but he seemed pretty intent on chasing after the guy until I stopped him,” he explains. “You don’t think… that maybe the reason he’s not here right now is because he tried to find him again, do you…?”

Tyler bites his lip. “Fuck, I don’t know. He probably would’ve told me,” he sighs, looking back at his phone hopefully.

“I’d like to think Evan is smart enough not to do something that dumb, but he can also be such an idiot sometimes…” Craig sighs, worry bubbling in his chest. “He can’t get hurt, Tyler, he’s the only family I have left…”

Tyler looks over at him, grabbing his hand. “Yeah, but you’ll still have me,” he points out, leaning over and kissing Craig’s hand and then calling Evan.

Craig feels that familiar pang in his chest he always feels when Tyler shows him affection like that, but before he could say anything to him, Evan answered the phone. “ _Tyler, this really isn’t the best time,_ ” he hisses sharply over the sound of a car engine in the background.

Tyler groans loudly. “Please fucking tell me you’re on your way  _here_  like your brother wants you to be,” he almost pleads, not wanting him going after some crazy mugger when his brother needed him.

“Is he awake?” Evan asks, hopeful, only to immediately start swearing under his breath at whatever was happening on the other side of the line.

Tyler is already up and pacing. “Yeah– what the  _fuck_  are you doing?” he hisses, clearly more caught up in that rather than the fact that Craig was awake.

“It doesn’t matter, don’t worry about it,” Evan is quick to reply, maybe a little too quick, and he swears again. “I’ll be there as soon as I can, and I’ll… explain later… maybe. We’ll see. Tell Craig I’m sorry that I wasn’t there when he woke up, and that I’ll see him soon. Make sure a nurse sees to him and he eats something, okay?”

Tyler growls. “I swear to God I’m gonna kick your ass, Evan. He doesn’t need a damn nurse, I’m right here!” he snaps, clearly frustrated that Evan was lying to him.

“Sorry Tyler, I didn’t realise you were a medical expert,” Evan snaps back, and then sighs. “Look, I’ll explain later. Don’t tell Craig  _anything_  about this conversation, alright? I don’t need him thinking something’s wrong, but I have to go. I’ll see you two in a bit,” he says, and then promptly hangs up.

Tyler pulls the phone away from his face to glare at it, sarcastically muttering, “Bye,” and shoving it into his pocket. He then walks over to Craig, knowing he’ll have questions that Tyler couldn’t answer.

Throughout the entire phone call, Craig was watching him, concerned and worried about what Evan was doing. “What’s going on?” he asks, scared of the answer.

Tyler sighs, gently cupping his face and kissing Craig’s cheek. “We have it under control. Nothing’s wrong,” is all he says, but doesn’t bother moving away.

“Doesn’t sound like nothing is wrong…” Craig mutters, suspicious, and gently pulls Tyler’s hands away from his face. He only had Tyler’s side of the conversation to go on, and judging by how frustrated Tyler seemed to be, something  _had_  to have been going on that they weren’t telling him.

Tyler decides to change the topic. “Like that thing you said to me when you woke up?” he asks, one eyebrow raised.

Craig scrunches his nose up in confusion as he tried to remember what he had said. “…What?”

Tyler flashes a cocky grin. “You were too drugged up to remember, but…” he trails off, grin fading to a genuine smile.

“What? What did I say?” Craig asks, suddenly worried that he might’ve said something stupid or embarrassing, or confessed something that he wasn’t sure he ever wanted Tyler to know.

Tyler crouches down to his level, smile ever present. “You told me I was cute when I slept,” he replies, glad to have taken the topic off of Evan.

“What?! No I didn’t,” Craig splutters, avoiding eye contact with Tyler as a blush creeps up from his neck. “I didn’t say that. You’re fucking with me.”

Tyler shakes his head. “Nah, dude. I woke up and you were holding my hand and you looked so damn high and you told me I looked cute when I slept,” he replied, leaving out the part where he’d reciprocated the thought.

Craig chuckles nervously. “I was drugged up, I probably didn’t know what I was saying or doing,” he reasons, heart beating fast, internally cursing himself for blurting out something like that. He might have had a slight ( _slight_ ) crush on Tyler that he certainly didn’t need him finding out about, and he hoped his drugged up self didn’t say anything else that was too incriminating.

Tyler frowns as he gets up, walking to his seat. “That’s a shame, then, cause if I look cute when I sleep then you looked like the most adorable thing on the planet,” he replies casually as he sits down.

Craig stares at him for a moment, and then laughs. “You are fucking with me,” he says, absolutely certain that that was the only explanation that Tyler would say something like that to him. “There’s no way I called you cute and there’s no way that you’d ever think that about me,” he says shaking his head with a smile, though it felt a little forced.

He just shrugs, not even chuckling. “Sure, tell yourself whatever you want,” Tyler mutters, getting up. “Whatever helps you sleep at night,” he says as he walks over to the windows and peers out curiously.

It was early morning by this point, early enough the sky glowed orange with the sunrise, but not late enough that the streetlights had flickered off. Craig’s room overlooked the street, and Tyler could see a few cars already making their journey to work for an early shift. The sidewalks were deserted, and the stores across the street were still closed. Neither Evan nor his car were anywhere in sight.

“Tyler?” Craig asks, voice soft and nervous. “Let’s say that  _hypothetically_ , you weren’t fucking with me and I did call you cute… then  _hypothetically speaking_ … what did you- what would you have said? If I had called you cute, I mean,” he adds, lightly biting his lip, gaze flickering between Tyler and anything else.

Tyler taps his fingers lightly against the window sill. Frowning at no sign of Evan, he walks over to stand beside Craig’s bed. “I said, 'So are you’,” he replies softly.

“Really?” Craig asked, looking up at him with eyes full of hope, and then internally cursed himself for acting so lovestruck.

Not particularly sure why, Tyler acts on impulse and leans in, resting his right hand on the opposite side of Craig’s body and leaning in to kiss him. Craig  holds his breath as he watches as Tyler slowly moves closer to him, heart beating fast, and before he even fully understands what’s happening, he’s leaning forward to meet him and curiously presses his lips against his. Tyler immediately gets way too wrapped up in the kiss, hand slipping around to the back of Craig’s neck as he pours his heart into it, and Craig lightly hums.

The handle on the door twists, and the sound snaps them out of it, and Craig harshly shoves Tyler off of him before anyone could catch them in the act. Tyler reaches one hand out to Craig as though asking why, turning and immediately dropping his hand when he sees the door open. He nervously steps away, biting his lip.

Evan steps in with a bright smile, not seeming to notice what the pair was just doing, and lightly closes the door behind him. “Hey,” he greets softly, as he walks over to where Craig was still propped up in bed. “How are you feeling?”

“Uhh I-I’m good, I’m doing good,” Craig stutters, glancing between Tyler and Evan, flashing the latter with a smile as if to demonstrate his point. Tyler seems to get colder when Evan walks in, arms folded over his chest and eyes following his every move. He says nothing, just watches the man with narrowed eyes.

“I’m glad,” Evan replies with a genuine smile, pointedly ignoring the way Tyler was looking at him. “You fucking scared me for a while there. I thought I was going to lose you…” he frowns.

“Yeah, I thought I was a goner too…” Craig replies, biting his lip and glancing up at Tyler again, vaguely remembering a conversation they had after he had just woken up. “But I’m okay now though. No need to worry.”

Evan grins at him and playfully pinches his cheek. “I’m always going to worry about my little brother,” he says, grin growing when Craig slapped his hand away with a glare. Tyler steps around the bed, walking over to stand beside Evan. He still doesn’t say anything but there seems to be a silent understanding between him and Evan.

“Yeah okay,” Craig scoffs with an eye roll, but in spite of his tone, smiles fondly to himself. “Now that you’re here though, can you go and get me something from the cafeteria? We never got that dinner and I’m fucking  _starving_.”

Tyler finally takes this time to speak up. “I’ll go with him,” he volunteers, glancing at Evan as though asking for permission.

Evan sighs, as he knows  _exactly_  why Tyler was insisting he come with him, and he was dreading this conversation since he hung up the phone. Craig, however, was having difficulty hiding his disappointment as this wasn’t at all what he was hoping to happen if he managed to convince Evan to leave the room again. “Why?”

Tyler looks over at Craig. “I’m trying to keep you safe,” he replies, grabbing Evan’s wrist a little more forceful than he likely needed to.

Evan tenses up at Tyler’s words and tries to pull his wrist out of Tyler’s grip. “By… making sure I don’t starve to death?” Craig asks confused, not understanding what Tyler was trying to say at all.

Tyler shrugs. “Sure. Why not,” he mutters, practically dragging Evan out of the room.

As soon as they’re out of the room and the door is shut behind him, Evan yanks his wrist out of Tyler’s grip a little more sharply. “So uh…” he begins, as they start walking towards the cafeteria. “What should we get for Craig?” he asks with a feeble smile, steering the conversation as far away from what Tyler wanted to talk about as possible.

Tyler glares at him. “Fuckin’ waffles. Where have you been?!” he snaps, turning to face Evan.

“Uh… out?” Evan offers, knowing full well that Tyler was never going to accept that response.

Tyler stops, grabbing a fistful of Evan’s shirt. “You know what I mean, motherfucker,” he growls, eyes narrowing. “You’ve been getting into illegal shit, haven’t you?” he demands.

“Tyler, we’re in a hospital, there’s people around,” Evan hisses, glancing between Tyler’s hand and the nurses at the nurses station just down the hall, who’d definitely see them if they turned and looked in their direction.

Tyler raises an eyebrow at him,“Yeah? Then I’m right,” he snaps, leaning closer to Evan with eyes narrowed in fury.

“Would you fucking let go of me before someone comes over here and sees us? I don’t want to get kicked out of the hospital because of you,” Evan says sternly, and tries to unwrap Tyler’s fingers from his shirt.

He groans as he drops Evan, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Fine. Just tell me what you did,” Tyler says, watching Evan with a disappointed big brother look in his eyes.

Evan sighs, his shoulders slumping, and he’s silent for a moment to think of how he was going to explain what happened as they continue their walk to the cafeteria. “I… may or may not have… stolen a car…” he explains slowly, watching for Tyler’s reaction warily as he nervously rubbed the back of his neck.

Tyler covers his face, groaning loudly. “God damn it, Evan,” he mumbles. He falls silent for a moment as he considers Evan’s reasons. “Fine. That’s fine. I get it,” he shrugs, seeming to calm himself.

“…Really?” Evan asks warily. “You’re not going to yell at me? Or even ask why I did it?” he frowns.

He shakes his head. “I’d do the same for him,” he sounds almost defeated as he shrugs, covering up how fast his heart was racing.

Evan sighs, looking down at the ground sadly as they walked, and shoved his hands into his pockets. “I just don’t know how else to pay for his medical bills, and cars sell for a lot of money so… it just made sense. It might not have been the right thing to do, but what else could I have done? I’d never be able to find a second job, and like hell am I going to let Craig get one, so I really didn’t have another option…”

Tyler slings one arm over Evan’s shoulders. “I know, man. If you need me you know I’m here for you,” he offers as he glances over at Evan.

Evan chuckles darkly. “Don’t tell me something like that, man, or else you might get dragged into all of this shit too,” he says, smiling faintly at him. “You don’t need a criminal record.”

He presses a gentle kiss to Evan’s temple. “I mean it. I don’t want you to fuckin’ go out there on your own and get killed,” he insists.

Evan smiles fondly to himself. “Yeah, it’ll be much better if we go out there and die together.”

Tyler rolls his eyes, gently shaking Evan and letting him go. “Ev, it’d be easier if you had someone to watch your back. I’m not letting you orphan your goddamn brother,” he glares at him.

“That’s why I don’t want you to help. If we both die or get arrested or something, then he won’t have anyone left,” Evan says softly, avoiding looking him in the eye.

Tyler stops him, walks in front of him and sets his hands on Evan’s shoulders. “Evan. Seriously. I don’t want you fuckin’ dying cause you’re alone and outnumbered. Just… fuck, tell me if you want me to come, man,” he sighs, letting him go and walking down to the cafeteria.

“I’ll think about it,” Evan tells him with a curt nod as they finally step into the canteen and make their way towards the buffet. “… I do hope you realise that if you do help me out, then you’re going to have to wear a mask to protect your identity…”

Tyler nods, “I know. Just… I’d rather not have you alone, man,” he sighs as he grabs a plate of food for Craig.

“I know,” Evan says, and claps him on the shoulder as he watches him spoon food onto a plate. “Let’s… let’s wait until Craig is out of the hospital before we do anything though. I don’t want him to be left alone while he’s here.”

Tyler shakes his head. “Like he is right now? Take this, I’ll go… go check on him,” he mutters, a tinge of worry sneaking into his voice.

Evan laughs. “I’m sure he could manage being on his own for ten minutes, Tyler. I meant I don’t want him to be on his own for hours,” he explains, shaking his head, but takes the plate from him regardless.

Tyler doesn’t say anything, jumping slightly until Evan takes the tray at which point he takes off back to Craig’s room. Evan watches him bolt out of the cafeteria, quietly wondering why he was in such a rush.

Tyler gets there much quicker than he needed to, hand gripping the door handle tightly as he opened the door. “Hey,” he breathes as he steps in, shutting the door behind him.

“Hey,” Craig replies softly, smiling brightly at him. He watches the door for a moment, half expecting Evan to follow him inside. “What did you do to Evan?”

Tyler glances back, shrugging and walking over to stand beside Craig. “Left him in the cafeteria. I got worried about you,” he mumbles innocently.

“Worried about me?” Craig repeats, a little surprised. “Why?”

He shakes his head, unable to give him a good reason. “Just… I dunno,” he mumbles, shifting nervously on his feet.

“Well… you don’t need to worry about me, Tyler, I’m fine,” Craig reassures him with a fond smile, lightly biting his lip and his gaze drifted down towards Tyler’s. He had thought about the kiss the entire time he was gone, and decided that he very much wanted to do it again. Tyler’s breath hitches as he watches Craig, torn between risking a kiss and not as he knew Evan would come back in a few seconds.

As if on cue, Evan enters the room with a plate of breakfast food in hand and walks over to give it to Craig. “Here,” he says, holding onto it as Craig sits up properly in bed, and then plops down into Tyler’s empty chair once he takes it.

“Thanks Evan,” Craig says with a grin, and takes a bite of the fried egg, screwing up his nose at the taste. “It tastes like shit,” he mumbles with his mouth full.

Tyler raises an eyebrow, mumbling something about 'fuckin waffles’ as he walks over to the window. The sun had finally risen and they were now in early morning, indicating that both him and Evan had stayed up for the entire night. The street was now bustling with people and the road was gridlocked with traffic, and the city was much busier now than when he had looked out the window before.

Tyler rubs his face at the sight of the sun, reminding him that he and Evan needed sleep. “Ev?” He asks as he turns around, walking over to the man in question.

“Hm?” Evan hums, and now that he had sat down for the first time since Craig was admitted earlier in the night, he was suddenly feeling exhausted and struggled to keep his eyes open as he relaxed back in the chair. Tyler walks over and sets one gentle hand on his shoulder.

“Ev, go home. Get some sleep. I can take care of Craig. It’s been a whole day, you need to sleep,” Tyler mumbles softly.

Too tired to argue, Evan pulls himself out of the chair and stretches out his tired limbs. “What about you though?” he asks, knowing that Tyler likely didn’t get much sleep either.

“I’d be okay on my own if you both wanted to go home,” Craig says between mouthfuls, eyeing them both with concern.

Tyler hugs Evan, mumbling “Be safe” in his ear before stepping away. “I’ll be okay, I got him to keep me on my toes,” he replies, gesturing to Craig.

Evan nods, and just before he turns to leave, he dips down to give Craig a hug as well. “Don’t fucking scare me like that again,” he mutters, lightly kissing his temple.

“I’ll do my best, now get the fuck off me and go to bed,” Craig says, smiling at him fondly as Evan ruffles his hair, before finally exiting the room and leaving them both alone. Craig takes another bite of his breakfast, and turns his gaze back to Tyler. “Seriously, I’d be okay on my own if you wanted to go too…?”

Tyler shakes his head. “Nah. I’m okay. I’d rather be here with you anyway,” he mutters as he walks over and sits beside Craig.

Craig’s heart flutters in his chest and he tries to bite his lip to stop himself from smiling quite so much, and he looks down at his plate. “I… I think I’d prefer if you stuck around too,” he says softly, glancing up at him again. Tyler nods, smiling softly to himself as he slumps in the chair. “But… I won’t mind if you wanted to sleep here either,” Craig adds, eyeing him closely. Tyler hums softly, asleep in seconds, and Craig watches him nod off with a smile, quietly noting that he really did look cute while he slept. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like it! Updates take so long because SOMEONE (me) has been proofreading the chapters (also I just really enjoyed writing this)

Tyler doesn’t sleep for more than a few hours before he jerks awake, calming at the sight of Craig. “Hey,” he quietly mumbles, taking deep breaths.

“Hey,” Craig says back with a soft smile, turning away from the TV that he had been watching to pass the time to divert his attention to Tyler instead. “Good morning, sleepyhead.”

He chuckles softly. “Morning,” he mumbles, pulling his phone out and texting Evan to bring him lunch. He falls silent, letting his mind drift back to their kiss.

“Did you sleep alright? That chair didn’t look too comfortable,” Craig says with a frown, silently wondering if he should have let Tyler crawl into bed next to him so he could nap more comfortably, blushing ever so slightly at the thought.

Tyler jumps slightly when Craig drags him out of his thoughts. “Huh? Yeah, had a dream about you,” he adds, as though it were nothing special.

Craig swears that his heart stopped for a second, and his eyes widen a little in surprise. “Really?” he asks, his heart racing. “What… what was your dream about?”

Tyler’s eyes narrow and focus on a wall. “That I was there instead of Evan,” he mumbles softly.

“Oh,” Craig says softly, mood dropping, and he eyed him sympathetically. He sincerely hoped that Tyler didn’t blame himself for this happening, and he reached over towards Tyler to grab his hand, but all he could reach was his knee, and gently squeezed that instead. “I’m okay, Tyler. I survived, and I can only get better from here.”

Tyler smiles gently at him. “I killed the fucker that did it,” he replies slowly, setting his hand over Craig’s. “I saw him stab you and just fuckin lost it,” he continues.

Craig was not expecting that. “Oh…” he says again, unsure of what else to say to that. “Well uh… I’m sure dream me appreciated you getting revenge…?” he adds slowly, unsure as to whether or not he agreed with that statement.

Tyler shakes his head slowly, finding that he no longer wanted to talk about it and dropping the subject. He finds the kiss bubbling back to the surface of his mind and he itches with nervousness.  _Did Craig even like him? Was he wrong to have kissed him?_  Tyler bites his lip, feeling his heart slamming against his chest.

It wasn’t until then that Tyler’s phone buzzed with a text from Evan replying to the one Tyler had sent him.

_Evan: what do you want me to bring you? also have potential buyer for the car, and after seeing his offer… well we’re going to need to get a hold of a lot more cars_

Tyler glances over at his phone, grabbing it and texting Evan back before sinking back into his thoughts.  _Craig didn’t seem to hate him, he’d been allowed to stay here. What did it even mean? What were they now?_

_Tyler: fuck, idc. And I told you if you need me I’m here. Not like we can drag Craig into this. Go out at night, while he’s asleep?_

_Evan: you’re getting Subway then. And that’s a good of a plan as any. Will we go tonight or wait til he gets out?_

“Is that Evan?” Craig asks, eyeing the phone in Tyler’s hands curiously.

Tyler looks up,“Yeah, he says hi,” he replies.

_Tyler: do you really wanna leave him alone? Plus what if he wakes up and we’re both gone?_

_Evan: we’ll wait til he’s home then, might be less suspicious that way. not unless we lie and tell him we went home to sleep, but I dunno if I wanna do that…_

“Tell him I said ‘hi’ too,” Craig grins at him, just as Tyler’s phone buzzes with a second message.

_Evan: also, I spoke to a friend of a friend, and he just so happens to know a purple haired mugger…_

Tyler looks over the text once and sighs audibly, holding back the urge to smack Evan. Once Craig’s words register, he looks over and sees his smile and leans over to kiss his cheek. Craig laughs a little nervously, cheeks heating up.

_Tyler: dude, how much time have you poured into finding this fucker? Also remind me to tell you about this dream I had…_

_Evan: You don’t need to know that. And I don’t need to know about any of your crazy sex dreams_

Tyler nearly chokes on air at Evan’s text.

_Tyler: I think I do now, and fuck you it was not sexy. You wish it was sexy._

_Evan: only a couple of hours, not that long. And I definitely don’t wish that. At all._

_Tyler: when are you getting here? You better not be chasing that fucker._

_Evan: don’t worry, I’m not going after him until I have a solid plan, and I’m on my way to you two rn, but I have to stop at Subway first for your stupid lunch_

_Tyler: Good._  

He lets out a sigh he didn’t remember holding in as he shoves his phone away, leaning back in his chair and looking over at Craig, smiling. Craig returns the smile, though it’s a little forced and very nervous, and he looks down at his fidgeting hands, memory of the last time Tyler had kissed him playing over and over again in his mind.

Tyler lets his mind wander to the kiss, no matter how much he hates where it goes to. He gently bites his lip, pushing away the urge to kiss him.

“So uh… how’s life?” Craig finally asks him, breaking the awkward silence that descended upon them. “Anything interesting happen at work lately? …Meet anyone special?”

Tyler looks over, seeming vacantly distracted. “Huh?” he looks over, almost taking his bait. “I just… sorry, I just keep thinking about the kiss,” he mumbles, deciding to address it now rather than wait until Evan came and pushing it off.

Craig freezes and his breath hitches, and he looked up at him surprised. “You… you do?” he asks, hesitant as to where this was going.

Tyler nods. “Yeah. You taste like strawberries,” he mumbles quietly, before adding,“I like strawberries.”

Craig chuckles a little nervously, glancing away as his cheeks began to heat up. “I uh… thanks?” he chuckles again. “I’d tell you what you taste like but… I don’t know if I got a good enough taste the first time…”

Tyler flashes a grin and looks over. “What, you want another one now?” Tyler asks, getting up and walking over to cup Craig’s face.

“Maybe… if you’re offering…?” Craig asks, unconsciously licking his lips in anticipation, as he stared at Tyler’s. Tyler leans in suddenly, catching Craig’s tongue between his teeth, which caught him off guard, and he squeaks and jumps back in surprise, banging the back of his head on the headboard. “Fuck!” he swears, and rubs at the tiny bump.

Tyler immediately shifts, gently setting his hand on the back of Craig’s head. “Shit, are you okay? I’m so sorry,” he searches his face, biting his lip nervously.

“I’m fine, you just surprised me is all,” Craig explains, his cheeks heating up in embarrassment.

Tyler smiles at him, leaning in again. “You wanna try that again?” he asks, voice quiet.

Craig answers his question with a kiss, closing the distance between them and snaking a hand around the back of Tyler’s neck. Tyler sets one hand on Craig’s cheek, gently biting his bottom lip as though testing him. Craig hums in contentment, and shuffles as close to him as he could without falling out of bed. Tyler sits on the edge of the bed, tugging on Craig’s lip. Craig moans quietly and snakes both arms around his neck, sitting up and pulling him closer still.

Tyler sets his hands on Craig’s hips, torn between keeping him in that spot or yanking him into his lap and risking a nurse finding them. He groans against Craig’s lips, hands slowly exploring his chest as he brushes his tongue over Craig’s lips. Craig obediently opens his mouth and tilts his head, sliding his tongue against Tyler’s, moaning again into his mouth as Tyler gently traces his tongue over Craig’s, groaning and pinning him against the bed.

The door handle turns but the door doesn’t swing open, and Craig hastily pulls away and looks up at Tyler in panic. “Tyler, come open this door for me, my hands are full,” Evan calls out to him.

Tyler bites back a groan as he gets up, walking over and opening the door with a quietly muttered “You really know how to kill the mood,” that was thick with sarcasm.

“What did you say? I didn’t hear you,” Evan says as he steps inside, plastic bag filled with Subway in one hand, and a cardboard box carrying three cups of coffee in the other.

Tyler rolls his eyes, shutting the door behind him. “Nothing,” he mutters softly, taking the coffee and offering him a loving smile in return.

Evan eyes him with suspicion, but before he has a chance to question him, Craig distracts him. “Is that Starbucks?” he perks up, and Evan had to laugh.

“Yeah, I got your favourite, though admittedly I couldn’t remember what it was, but luckily the barista recognised me and remembered your order. You go there way too often,” he says, rolling his eyes as Craig chuckled, and handed him the cup with his name scribbled on the side. “Tyler, I didn’t know what to get you so I guessed. Enjoy.”

Tyler rolls his eyes. “Yeah, thanks. You couldn’t have texted me?” he glares at Evan, sipping his coffee.

Evan shrugs and smirks at him. “It’s more fun this way. Also, you didn’t tell me what sub you wanted so I guessed that too,” he adds, reaching into the plastic bag and handing him his sandwich.

Tyler groans out loud, walking over and grabbing his sandwich, shoving Evan lightly with his shoulder. “You asshole,” he grumbles.

“If I was an asshole, I wouldn’t have brought you anything at all,” Evan tells him as he hands Craig the sandwich he bought him and then finally pulls out his own. “Honestly, you should be thanking me.”

Tyler just walks away, muttering under his breath"If  _I_  was an asshole I would’ve just let you walk in,“ as he sips his coffee and walks over to stand beside Craig, who promptly choked on his coffee when he caught the tail end of that sentence.

Evan didn’t catch what Tyler had said, and instead helpfully patted Craig on the back, and once he had calmed down enough, asks “Have you spoken to a doctor yet about getting home?”

Craig nodded, taking another sip of coffee. “Yeah, he said I could go home tomorrow if I wanted,” he tells him, and Evan nods approvingly as he bit into his sandwich, glancing up at Tyler as he did so.

Tyler looks over at Craig, one eyebrow raised as he bit back yet another sassy remark and opened his sandwich, eyes barely skimming over Evan. “What, Evan? Having trouble taking twelve inches in your mouth while making eye contact with me? Or do you like it, and if you do what are you not telling me?” Tyler snarks at him.

Evan glares at him. “Fuck off,” he mumbles, rolling his eyes. “Have you thought about anything other than sex today? First you text me about your wet dreams, and now this. Are you sure you’re not the one who isn’t telling me something?” he shoots back, not noticing how Craig’s face was slowly turning a dark shade of red. Tyler neglected to mention  _that_  part of his dream about him…

Tyler smirks, winking at him. “Oh, trust me Evan, there’s a  _lot_  I’m not telling you,” he scoffs. “But for your information, being stuck alone in a room with your little brother has its perks,” he shoots Evan a cocky glare, grin taking up half his face.

Evan stares at him confused for a moment, before glancing at Craig who was pointedly avoiding eye contact, and he turns back to Tyler again. “What perks…?” he asks, not having a single idea as to what he was talking about.

“Yeah, wouldn’t you like to know,” Tyler mumbles. “Why? Do you get off on that kinda thing?” He raises an eyebrow. “I don’t exactly tell, Ev.”

Evan narrows his eyes at him, and he has a vague idea as to what he was hinting at, but knew that that couldn’t possibly be true. “Are you trying to imply that you made out with my little brother? Because I know that you know that I’d disown you if you tried anything with him,” he says, and it’s not immediately obvious as to whether or not he’s being serious.

“Evan I’m right fucking here!” Craig snaps, glaring at him a little harsher than he intended.

“I know,” Evan smiles at him, and lightly pats him on the shoulder. “But don’t date Tyler, Craig, you can do better,” he adds, shooting a Tyler a teasing smirk.

Tyler narrows his eyes at him,“What’s the matter, Evan? Do you not  _like_  the idea of me fucking your little brother?” he asks almost mockingly, stepping closer to him.

“That’s not a mental image I ever wanted to have,” Evan says with a frown, and chews on his sandwich a little more slowly.

Tyler grins victoriously. “Yeah, it’s doing wonders on me,” he mutters almost sarcastically, leaning over the bed to glare at Evan and very subtly rest a hand on Craig’s thigh.

Craig tenses and looks up at Tyler, glancing between him and Evan nervously. “And that’s another mental image I never wanted,” Evan says, rolling his eyes.

His hand slowly inches up Craig’s thigh the more he leans toward Evan. “Yeah, all while taking those remaining ten inches like a champ. Your boyfriend would be  _very_  proud,” he grins.

“Shut the fuck up Tyler,” Evan says, chuckling a little this time, his mood lightening up at the mention of Brock, not noticing Tyler’s hand, or Craig carefully moving it off of his leg, biting his lip and eyeing him nervously.

Tyler cracks into a huge grin when Evan laughs. “Come on, it seems like the perfect thing to brag about to him,” he laughs as well, easily stepping away and removing his hand from Craig’s body entirely.

“We’ve been dating for a year, at this point he is more than aware of what I’m capable of,” Evan points out slyly and smirks at Tyler, and it was Craig’s turn to wear an expression of disgust.

“Can we talk about something else? I don’t want to hear you two argue about your sex lives any more,” Craig says with a frown, gaze drifting to Tyler as Evan starts to laugh.

“I don’t think Tyler joking about having sex with you to annoy me counts as a sex life, Craig,” Evan says, shaking his head. “But don’t worry Tyler, we’ll find you someone one day. If you want, I can ask Brock if he has any friends he could set you up with?”

Tyler gently bites his lip, as though considering it. “I dunno, maybe if he’s cute,” he shrugs, seeming rather disinterested, wincing and looking away at the initial mention of Brock’s sex life.

“I’ll talk to Brock then,” Evan resolves with a curt nod, and then changes the topic to someone rude he was standing next to in Starbucks, not at all noticing the brief look of sadness flash across Craig’s face before he replaced it with a forced smile.

Was Tyler serious? Did those kisses not mean anything to him? Was he  _really_  considering dating someone else? He supposed that they  _technically_  weren’t dating, and certainly weren’t exclusive, so Tyler  _was_  free to date whoever he wanted, whether it was Craig himself like he thought he wanted to, or someone else entirely, someone who wasn’t just his best friend’s kid brother. Still, he thought there was something there but maybe he was wrong.

Then again, there was the possibility that Tyler was only saying that so Evan didn’t find out what they were doing when he wasn’t around. Either way, Craig quietly decided that he would talk to Tyler about this later, if and/or when he plucked up the courage to.


	4. Chapter 4

A day later, after night had fallen and Craig had drifted off to sleep on the couch in their apartment while watching some terrible and boring movie, and Evan was watching him from the doorway, pensive. Sighing, he turns to Tyler and steps away from the door frame he was leaning against. “Are you sure you want to do this with me? There’s still time to back out if you wanted to. I won’t hold it against you,” he says, unusually serious.

Tyler sets one hand on Evan’s shoulder. “I would’ve backed out already. I know, Evan. You can’t do this on your own, you’ll get yourself killed,” he insists.

Knowing there wasn’t much else he could say to change his mind, Evan reluctantly nodded. “Alright. I’ll go get my equipment then. Do me a favour and carry Craig to bed? Sleeping on the couch won’t help his shoulder,” he says as he disappears into his bedroom.

Tyler barely resists the urge to jump up and down in excitement as he walks around Evan, ever so gently scooping Craig into his arms and cradling him close to his chest. Despite his carefulness, Craig was still jostled awake and he looked up Tyler, not really registering what was going on in his half asleep state. “Tyler?” he mumbles sleepily, loosely snaking his arms around his neck.

Immediately Tyler grins at his voice. “Morning, sleeping beauty,” he replies calmly, taking extra care not to smack Craig against doorways.

“…Is it morning?” Craig mumbles confused, lifting his head up and looking around to try and figure out what time it was.

Tyler slowly shakes his head, glancing up to find his way around the apartment. “Like midnight thirty,” he guesses, not bothering to glance at a clock as he says this.

“That’s not morning,” Craig frowns, and rests his head against Tyler’s shoulder again. “I’m going to go back to sleep then,” he mumbles, closing his eyes.

Tyler smiles at him, gently pressing a kiss against his cheek as he opens the door to Craig’s room and sets Craig on his bed, hovering over him. His voice is soft. “Craig, hun. Let go,” he tells him with a smile.

“I won’t have to if you get into bed too and sleep with me,” he says as he relaxes onto the bed, arms still around Tyler’s neck, much too tired to notice his double entendre.

“Oh, believe me, I’d love to sleep with you,” he grins. “Unfortunately your brother would chop off my goddamn head, and he’s in the other room,” he presses another gentle kiss to Craig’s forehead, shifting and hovering over top of him.

“He won’t notice. He’s kinda dumb,” Craig mutters, tightening his grip on him and pulling him down onto the bed. Tyler barely manages to stop himself from landing directly on Craig, chuckling softly.

Tyler rests one hand on the bed beside Craig’s waist, leaning down to whisper in his ear. “God, Craig, you really wanna fuck now?” in a harsh voice that almost seemed a little too curious.

“Who said anything about fucking? I just want you to sleep with me,” Craig says with a frown, looking up at him tired and confused. Tyler heaves a sigh, giving up and lying beside Craig, wrapping the other man as close as he could get. Craig cuddles up to him, content, and buries his face into his neck, and it wasn’t long before he drifted back to sleep.

Not wanting to wake him just as easily as he did last time, Tyler wraps his arms around Craig’s waist and lays with him for awhile, listening to the quiet sounds of Craig’s breathing and the not so quiet sounds of Evan rattling and rummaging in the next room, sounding as if he was taking something apart.

Tyler barely bites back his curiosity, tightening his grip on Craig at the reminder of what was to come. After a moment, the rattling stops, and he hears the sound of Evan’s bedroom door opening and closing as he heads to the kitchen. Tyler waits barely a moment before he wiggles out of Craig’s grip, pressing a kiss to his cheek and mumbling an almost unheard ‘I love you’ that he wasn’t quite willing to admit that he’d said before following the sound of Evan. Every step closer got his heart thumping louder in his chest, that voice in the back of his head singing 'You’re going to die’ grew slightly louder but he pushed it back, because he had to. For Craig, and for Evan.

When Tyler finds him in the kitchen, Evan is scribbling something onto a sticky note that he leaves on the counter, a gym bag strapped to his back. “Just leaving a note to tell Craig that I’m at Brock’s in case he wakes up and is wondering where I disappeared to,” he explains, dropping the pen onto the counter. “You ready?”

Tyler groans, rubbing his face. “Fuck, I guess so,” he sighs, pulling his phone out of his pocket and leaving it on the counter. “As a promise I’ll be back,” he shrugs, heading for the door.

“He has no reason to think you won’t be,” Evan points out as he follows after him.

“Yeah, but I do. Makes me feel better. Shut up,” he replies, opening the door and debating slamming it in Evan’s face but deciding against it.

Evan nods in understanding, and lets the subject drop, locking the door behind them. It isn’t until they’ve climbed to the bottom of the stairwell and exit the apartment building that Evan speaks again. “I’m thinking we head a bit aways from here to do this. We don’t want to do this too close to home,” he tells him, and begins walking down the street. Tyler hums and nods, following Evan.

They walk in silence until they reach a familiar part of the city, and Evan stops walking outside a large garage that Tyler recognises as belonging to Lui and Nogla’s apartment building. “Come in here,” he says, and waves for him to follow him to the door. Tyler stays silent, nodding and following Evan with a puppy-like loyalty.

Evan pulls out a key and opens the door, flicking on the lights and holding the door open for Tyler, who takes his time looking at their surroundings as he walks through the door. “Why the hell are we here?” he murmurs quietly.

“I needed somewhere to hide the last car I stole,” Evan shrugs, shutting the door, and then waves in the vague direction of a car hidden by a tarp. “That’s it over there, actually,” he says as he takes off the gym bag and sets it down onto a table and begins rummaging through it.

Tyler glances at him for a moment. “Seriously that thing looks so goddamn sketchy it’s not even funny.”

“What else was I supposed to do with it?” Evan frowns as he produces an owl mask and pulls it on. He then shrugs off the jacket he was wearing and replaces it with a red leather one.

Tyler looks back at Evan and immediately bursts into laughter. “What the fuck are you wearing?” he asks between laughs.

“We need to protect our identity  _somehow_ , unless you  _want_  people to be able to point us out in a police line up,” he says, digging through the bag for something else, and then tosses a mask towards him. “And you have to wear one too.”

Tyler catches the mask, looking it over and laughing. “We’re gonna be so sexy,” he mutters sarcastically to himself as he pulls it on.

“Tonight’s goal isn’t to get you laid, Tyler,” Evan says as he pulls out a pistol, double checks it to make sure the safety is on before tucking it into the waistband of his jeans.

Tyler just nods. “I know. That’s why we left Craig at home,” he grins.

Evan rolls his eyes behind his mask as he zips up the gym bag and tosses the strap over his shoulder again. “The faster Brock finds you a date the better. I don’t know how I feel about you perving on my little brother,” he comments and pulls out his phone to text Lui to remind him to wipe the security footage of them entering and leaving the garage.

Tyler doesn’t say anything, but it’s quite clear that he’s biting back several different responses, none of which can possibly be good.

Evan heads to the door and opens it a little, peeking out to make sure no was around. “Alright, the coast is clear. We might need to sneak around through alleys and gardens and shit as we really don’t want people to see us running around dressed like this,” he says, switching off the lights as he leaves the garage.

Tyler nods. “Oh yeah, cause we don’t look suspicious at all,” he mutters quietly as he follows a few steps behind Evan.

“Do you have a better idea?” Evan asks sharply and immediately dips into the first alley he sees. Tyler almost groans as he darts in behind him.

They weave through back alleyways, hopping over walls and fences for a solid forty-five minutes before they finally drift far enough away from where they lived and from where they were going to hide the car to finally start looking for one to steal.

“I honestly have no idea what type of car would be the best to take,” Evan admits as he peeks out of the alley they were currently hiding in.

Tyler heaves a sigh as he examines the cars. “Maybe a truck? Something not too new so we don’t look incredibly suspicious,” he shrugs and looks back at Evan, who nods in agreement.

“Yeah, and we probably want something that’s fairly common too and hard for the police and the owners’ to track down,” he muses.

Tyler waits for a moment, then gestures to a cadillac. “There’s like sixty fuckin million of that God awful car,” he suggests.

Evan nods. “It’ll do. We can sell pretty much anything anyway, so we don’t have to be too picky,” he says, and then begins steeling himself. “You keep lookout while I bust into this thing,” he instructs, and then quickly makes his way towards the car in question while there was no one around. Tyler hums and lingers nearby, eyes flickering across the area.

Once he reaches the car, Evan rummages through his bag again and pulls out a small wedge and an iron rod. He jams the wedge into the top of the car door, opening it ever so slightly and then pokes the rod through the opening to try and unlock the door from the inside. Tyler keeps a careful eye on Evan, nervously shifting on his feet at the thought of getting caught.

After a few moments of fidgeting and cursing under his breath, Evan was just about to unlock the car door when the alarm went off. The high pitched beeping made him jump and echoed loudly through the quiet street, and there was no way that anyone nearby wouldn’t have heard it. 


	5. Chapter 5

Panicking, Evan yanked out the rod and wedge and took off down the street, sharply turning into the first alley he saw in a feeble attempt to hide. Tyler curses under his breath and runs after Evan, easily catching up with him. “That fucking alarm didn’t go off the last time!” Evan complains as they sprint away to put as much distance between them and the car they tried to break into as possible. Tyler doesn’t say anything, heart slamming against his chest as he runs after Evan.  

 

As soon as they far enough way that the car alarm could be barely heard in the distance, Evan slowly jogged to a stop, leaning against the wall to catch his breath. “That didn’t happen last time,” he reiterates between pants.

 

Tyler sighs,  rubbing his face. “I know. What the hell went wrong? ” he asks, trembling slightly.

 

“I don’t know enough about cars to answer that,” Evan sighs, and shakes his head. “Maybe the last car I grabbed didn’t have one? I don’t know, but at least the owner didn’t catch me this time. I don’t want to deal with that shit again.”

 

All Tyler could manage was a breathless nod, looking up to make sure they were still alone.

 

“Do you wanna try again or will we just go home? I mean, I’d rather not go home empty handed, but it’s up to you, dude,” Evan says with a light shrug as he slowly catches his breath and steps away from the wall.

 

Tyler shakes his head, sharing Evan’s sentiments.  "I don’t wanna go home without knowing we can do this,“ he replies, eyes flickering from Evan to the road nearby.  

 

Evan nods and glances out of the alley at the cars that lined the street. “We’ll try again, and maybe avoid Cadillac’s this time,” he laughs just a little and shakes his head.

 

Tyler glares at him, chuckling softly and murmuring his agreement. "Fine, pussy,” he nudges Evan gently.

 

“Is that a challenge?” Evan asks with a faint smirk, eyes drifting to a second Cadillac further down the street.

 

Tyler chuckles, watching Evan fondly. “Maybe.”

 

Not one to back down from a dare, Evan steps out of the alley to make his way towards the car, but not before reminding Tyler to keep a lookout, and then begins the process all over again. Tyler lingers nearby just like he did last time, eyes frantically searching the area. It takes Evan a little longer this time to poke around the inside of the car as he was worried about setting the alarm off again, but this time manages to click it open without much trouble. He looks up at Tyler and grins triumphantly at him, momentarily forgetting he was wearing a mask and hops into the car, unlocking the passenger seat from the inside.

 

Tyler grins eagerly at him, walking over and getting inside the car. “Now’s the tricky part,” Evan mutters to him and slides his seat as far back as it could go. He pulls a power drill and a screwdriver out of the bag, and begins drilling into the ignition with careful hands. Tyler watches him work closely, as though he’d have to copy Evan’s movements later.

 

It takes Evan a few minutes to break the lock pins, and once he thinks he’s finished, he jams the screwdriver into the ignition and turns it like a key. To his delight, the engine begins to hum, and Evan grins brightly behind his mask.

 

“Awesome,” Tyler sighs in relief.  

 

“I learned that from Wiki How,” Evan says as if that’s something to proud of as he pulls away from the curb, anxiously looking in the mirrors behind him. “Did anybody see that?”

 

Tyler shifts in his seat, looking around.  "Nah, don’t think so,“ he mumbles.

 

“Okay. Okay good,” Evan breathes a sigh of relief, finally allowing his shoulders to relax. “All we have to now then is drop this off at Lui and Nogla’s, and then it’s just a matter of driving it to a Pay ‘N Spray tomorrow to get it repainted and get the lock fixed, and get some new plates too and we’ll be good to sell it.”

 

"Thank god,” Tyler sighs, more than ready to go home.

 

Evan nods in agreement, and then nods towards the glove compartment. “Did we manage to steal anything else of value by any chance?”

 

Tyler shrugs, opening the glove box. “A pistol. Damn. And a watch,” he offers the watch to Evan, tossing it in his lap.

 

Evan glances at the watch for a second, and makes the mental note to take it to a pawn shop some day. “You can keep the pistol, I have one already,” he says with a curt nod, and then chuckles. “I actually grabbed it from the last car too. America, eh?”

 

Tyler just sighs. “I know,” he shakes his head. “It’s like they’re worried about it getting stolen, ” he jokes.

 

“Yeah it’d be awful if that happened,” Evan laughs, and then after a moment of thought adds “I did tell you who the mugger was, right?” he asks, thinking back to their texts.

 

Tyler looks over, concern flashing in his eyes.  "No,“ he replies.

 

“Calls himself ‘Syndicate’. Apparently he does this sorta thing often, often enough to need a code name at least,” Evan frowns, hands tightening their grip on the steering wheel ever so slightly.

 

Tyler looks over, resting one hand on Evan’s. "Ev, we’ll get this guy,” he tries to calm him, and Evan takes a deep breath.

 

“He could have killed him…” he says quietly.

 

“I know that,” Tyler replies through gritted teeth.

 

“He almost took the last of my family away from me…” he continues in a harsher tone.

 

“ _Evan_!” Tyler snaps, knowing this is going too far.  

 

“What? You’re the one who said we were going to get him,” Evan points out, a frown in his voice.

 

Tyler glares at him. “Calm down. I know we need to get him, but getting pissed off at nothing won’t help,” he points out.

 

“I’d hardly call ‘ _stabbing my brother_ ’ ‘nothing’, Tyler,” Evan grumbles, but still takes his words to heart and takes another deep breath to try and calm himself down.

 

“He’s not fuckin’ here, I don’t know why you’re getting so worked up. We go home, create a plan or something. We can’t just wing it, Evan,” Tyler tells him.

 

“I know,” Evan sighs. “…But we will get him, right?”

 

Tyler nods. “Of course. Just not right this very minute,” he points out, looking at the empty road around them.

 

Evan nods, and after a short pensive moment, he chuckles. “God, you’re like best friend of the fucking year for everything you’re offering to do with me,” he muses with a small feeble smile, shoulders relaxing.

 

“I can’t let you do this alone,” is all Tyler says, as though to him it was the simplest thing in the world.

 

“Thanks Tyler,” Evan says softly with a fond smile. “And I’m sure Craig would appreciate it too, even though he can  _never_  know about any of this…”

 

“Hey, I always have room for another secret,” he mutters, almost to himself.

 

Evan is curious as to what he means by that, but doesn’t pry and lets the subject drop as they arrive back at the garage again. After opening the door, Evan drives in, and as soon as the car stops, he pulls off his mask. “It is far too stuffy in that thing,” he comments idly as he pulls out his phone to text Lui to let him know that he left another car in his garage.

 

“Personally, I think you chose this animal on purpose,” Tyler comments as he gets out of the car, taking his pig mask off and looking at it. “Is there something you aren’t telling me, Evan?” He looks up, faking concern.

 

“Yeah. You’re a pig,” Evan says bluntly and flashes him a grin to show that he was only teasing as he shoves all of the loose tools and the mask back into his gym bag.

 

Tyler frowns. “Is this about all the shit I say about your brother?” he asks, walking over to stand beside Evan. “What, do I have to get your blessing before I start dating him?” he raises one eyebrow.

 

Evan takes Tyler’s mask from him and stuffs it into the bag as well and zips it up, finally hopping out of the car and closing the door behind him. “Y’know, if you keep making comments like that, then I’m going to start thinking that you might actually  _want_  to date him.”

 

Tyler just chuckles, and he can’t help but notice how forced and awkward it sounds. “What, do you doubt Brock and his matchmaking skills?”

 

“Nah, he’ll find you someone that’s worth going on at least one date with, I’m sure,” Evan says confidently and pulls out his phone again. “Speaking of Brock, I might head over to his place. Craig thinks I’m there anyway, and I haven’t seen him in a few days so,” he shrugs.

 

Tyler nods, as though considering where he’ll go but he knows where he’s going already. “I’ll probably swing by your place and seduce your brother some more,” he replies, only half joking.

 

“Good luck with that,” Evan drawls with an eye roll as they leave the garage, flicking off the lights and locking the door. Tyler doesn’t say anything, looking around at the empty streets. “See you tomorrow?” Evan asks, before bidding him goodbye and walking off down the road in the direction of Brock’s apartment building.

 

“Sure,” Tyler shrugs, heading in the opposite direction towards Evan and Craig’s apartment.

 

* * *

 

Craig is still soundly asleep in bed when he lets himself in with the spare key, Evan’s note and his phone left untouched on the counter. Tyler takes his phone, heading right back to Craig’s room and sitting on the edge of his bed for a minute, taking time to think to himself. He kicks off his shoes, tossing his jacket on the floor and crawls into bed beside him.

 

The weight of Tyler lying down on the bed next to him is enough to wake him, and Craig turns towards him, blinking at him in confusion. “Where’d you go?” he mumbles sleepily and cuddles up next to him, wrapping his arms around his waist and burying his face in his chest.

 

Tyler smiles at him. “Me and Evan had to run a few errands,” he replies, wrapping one arm tightly around Craig and kissing the top of his head.

 

“I woke up earlier and you weren’t here. I thought you ditched me…” Craig mumbles with a frown.

 

Tyler pulls him closer. “No. I’ll always come back,” he replies softly.

 

“Promise?”

 

“Promise. That’s why I left my phone here.”

 

Craig hums in contentment, small smile on his face, and leans up to give him a soft kiss.

 

“I missed you,” Tyler mumbles quietly as he returns the kiss.

 

“I missed you too,” Craig says against his lips, smiling brightly at him.

 

Tyler wraps Craig up tightly in his arms. “Go back to sleep,” he tells him with a smile.

 

“You too,” Craig mumbles and nuzzles his face into Tyler’s neck, and slowly drifts back to sleep. Tyler stays awake long enough to wonder what he did to deserve Craig, falling asleep soon after.


	6. Chapter 6

As he always tended to, Tyler woke up first and crawled out of bed, wandering into the kitchen and making a cup of coffee in the eerie silence of early morning. He’s halfway through making it, when the front door swings open and Evan walks in. He seems surprised to see Tyler in the kitchen. “I wasn’t expecting you to be here…” he says, and wanders over to him.

 

At this, Tyler raises an eyebrow. “Where the hell am I  _supposed_  to be?” he asks, taking the coffee and sipping it as he turns to face Evan.

 

“I don’t know, at your own home maybe?” Evan suggests, dropping the gym bag he still had with him from the night before and leans back against the counter.

 

Tyler merely shrugs, glancing down at the gym bag. “Did… does Brock know?” he asks hesitantly.

 

“No, of course not,” Evan shakes his head. “I don’t want him getting involved in all of this, and I know if he ever finds out, he’s either going to force his way into helping like you did, or try to force me to stop, and I can’t do that,” he frowns.

 

“Probably,” Tyler shrugs. “Did you ever mention that matchmaking thing to him, Cupid?” Tyler asks in an almost teasing voice.

 

“Yeah! I did! He got super excited about it too actually, it was adorable,” Evan grins, and nudges him as he adds “And he thinks he knows someone who’d be perfect for you too.”

 

Tyler smiles almost sadly. ”Does he?” he hums, sipping at his coffee.

 

Evan nods proudly. “He has to ask him if he’d be interested first, but otherwise, yeah. Now you can leave my little brother alone and perv on somebody else’s brother.”

 

“Y'know…” Tyler pauses, seeming to rethink his sentence and stopping. “Never mind,” he shrugs it off, sipping his coffee.

 

“What?” Evan asks curiously.

 

Tyler shakes his head. “He’d kill me if I told you,” he mutters ominously, glancing from his coffee to the man beside him.

 

“Now I really want to know what you were about to say,” Evan frowns, eyes narrowing in suspicion.

 

“Maybe some day, when I know you won’t kick my ass for it,” he mutters quietly between sips of his coffee.

 

Evan’s brow furrows, but before he could press him any further, Craig appears at his bedroom door, interrupting their conversation. He’s smiling fondly at Tyler, and seemingly was about to say something only to cut himself off when he noticed that Evan was here too. “Uh… morning,” he greets.

 

“Morning,” Evan greets back, and steps away from the counter to wander over to him. “How’s the shoulder?”

 

“Alright. I mean, it still hurts a bit, but no more than usual,” he replies, gaze drifting past Evan to Tyler in the kitchen.

 

Tyler waves at him. “Morning, sleeping beauty,” he greets him, sipping at his coffee and tilting it to Craig, asking silently if he wanted some.

 

“Morning,” Craig repeats in a much softer, fonder tone than the one he used to speak to Evan, and nods to his silent request as he heads into the kitchen, not noticing the look Evan was shooting Tyler over his shoulder.

 

Tyler watches Evan with a totally calm glare, as though he’d won. “Hey,” he murmurs fondly, offering up his coffee to Craig when he comes close enough.

 

“You’re giving me your coffee?” he asks surprised, having assumed that Tyler was offering to make him a fresh cup, but takes the mug from him anyway, eyeing him suspiciously. “What’s wrong with it?”

 

“Nothing. I’m just too lazy,” he shrugs, fond gaze stuck on Craig as though nothing in the room existed but him. Trusting that Tyler  _didn’t_  do something to it, Craig takes a sip and smiles at Tyler over the rim of the cup.

 

“You never offered me a drink,” Evan points out with a frown as he inserts himself into their little bubble, leaning against a nearby counter with folded arms.

 

Tyler smiles back at Craig, only to look up when Evan speaks. “Make your own,” he shrugs.

 

Evan rolls his eyes but goes to make his own cup of coffee anyway, and while his attention is on the coffee maker, Craig takes a small step closer into Tyler’s personal space. “Are you gonna make breakfast to go along with the coffee or am I going to have to make my own too?” Evan asks as he works.

 

Tyler glances at Craig, momentarily distracted. “Huh? Oh, yeah, you’re on your own,” he mumbles.

 

“What’s the point in having you around if you’re not going to make us breakfast?” Evan teases lightly, too focused on making coffee to notice Craig creep even further into Tyler’s personal space until he’s  _almost_  pressed against his side, still smiling up at him over his cup.

 

If Tyler is bothered any by this, he doesn’t show it as he replies to Evan. “I’m a joy to have around,” he points out, glaring over at Evan.

 

“Are you?” Evan teases further and as he turns around with a fresh cup of coffee in hand, Craig takes a small step away from Tyler again so that Evan doesn’t get suspicious. “You could’ve fooled me.”

 

Tyler leans both arms against the counter,“Oh, fuck you. I’m hilarious,” he glares at Evan pointedly.

 

“Are you? I think it’s that’s the funniest thing I’ve ever heard you say,” he jokes as he takes a sip of his coffee. Tyler glares at him, very seriously debating spilling his coffee over Evan and siding against it, shifting in his spot. “Don’t worry, I’m sure your new boyfriend will find you as hilarious as you think you are,” Evan adds with a grin.

 

“…New boyfriend?” Craig asks hesitantly, suddenly tense and smile gone.

 

Evan nods. “Yeah, Me and Brock are setting him up with someone, and I don’t know who the guy is yet, but Brock has assured me that Tyler will love him,” he says, smiling at Tyler and gently nudging him, as Craig doesn’t respond and merely casts his gaze downwards into his mug instead.

 

Tyler shifts uneasily. “I don’t know if I’d trust Brock’s taste in men, I mean have you  _seen_  his boyfriend?” he asks, one eyebrow raised at Evan.

 

“I have actually. He’s great, and I bet Brock picked someone who’s just as amazing as his boyfriend is,” Evan smirks lightly at him.

 

“I dunno if I believe that. I mean, his brother’s hot at least,” Tyler shrugs effortlessly.

 

Craig looks back up Tyler again with a faint smile, but glances away almost immediately, and it was clear that there was something on his mind that he was worried about. “Dude, quit it,” Evan says rolling his eyes at that comment.

 

Tyler grins at this. “I’m just saying, Evan, this blind date might not be necessary,” he points out, glancing at Craig.

 

“Obviously it is, if you keep hitting on Craig just because he’s the only single person you know. Seriously dude, you reek of desperation,” Evan shrugs, oblivious to the way Craig tensed up and gripped his mug tighter.

 

Tyler bites back several nasty responses, shifting his arm closer to Craig. “I’m not sure what I should be more offended by,” he notes with a frown. “And for the record, I do not hit on Craig cause he’s single. I do it cause he’s adorable. The single thing just happened to work in my favor,” he counters.

 

“So, what? You wanna date my brother now?” Evan asks, eyeing him suspiciously over the rim of the mug.

 

“Would it help if you had it in writing?” Tyler inquires almost sarcastically, as though it was blatantly obvious to him.

 

“…I can’t tell if you’re being serious or not,” Evan admits, dumping his now empty mug into the sink. Tyler stays silent, leaning back against the counter and glancing at Craig every so often, who was very quiet throughout this entire conversation. “Either way, I only came home to change and then I’m going to go meet Brock again, and see if he has any updates on the blind date situation,” Evan explains, grabbing his abandoned gym bag and heads off into his bedroom, temporarily leaving them alone in the kitchen.

 

The second Evan turns his back, Tyler wraps Craig in a tight hug. “Fuck, I don’t wanna go,” he quietly mumbles, hiding his face in Craig’s neck.

 

The hug catches him off guard and he almost drops the mug and spills the little coffee he has left onto Tyler in surprise, but just about manages to keep a hold of it. “Go where?” Craig asks softly, wrapping his one free arm around him.

 

“On that dumb fuckin’ date,” he groans, gently wrapping one hand around the mug and pushing it away, setting it on the counter.

 

Craig smiles to himself, relieved that maybe Tyler wasn’t trying to replace him after all, though the question of who he was to Tyler was still on his mind. “Then don’t,” he says softly. “Just tell Evan you don’t want to go.”

 

Tyler presses a soft kiss against his neck. “I have to, so he isn’t suspicious. Did you see the way he stared at me? He might be stupid, but he’s not that stupid. He’ll piece it together. Plus Brock would be devastated,” he points out.

 

“Brock would get over it, he’s reasonable,” Craig points out, then bites his lip as another thought strikes him. “Should… should I go on a blind date too then? Just to really shake him off?” he frowns, not liking that idea at all.

 

“He’s your brother. He’d wave it off. The last thing he wants to think is that you like me, so he’ll think anything but that,” he points out, not liking how close they had just gotten to getting caught.

 

“Okay,” Craig nods, and he’s thinking about kissing him when the door to Evan’s bedroom opens, and he jumps away from Tyler before Evan sees them.

 

“I’m going to go then,” Evan says adjusting his collar as he walks to the door, and then turns to Tyler as if to say something, but changes his mind when he couldn’t think of phrasing vague enough that wouldn’t arouse suspicion from Craig. “I’ll text you later,” he says instead with a curt nod.

 

Tyler just nods. “Tell Brock I’ll go on that dumb date, if for nothing other than to make him happy,” he replies, already knowing he’d hate it.

 

“Will do,” Evan grins at him, before bidding them both goodbye and leaving the apartment.

 

“God, I’m gonna fuckin’ hate that double date,” he groans aloud, leaning back against the counter behind him.

 

“He never said it was going to be a double date,” Craig points out with a feeble smile. “Though I don’t know if that makes it better or not.”

 

Tyler watches him for a moment, reaching out and tangling one hand in Craig’s shirt to tug him closer. “I’m gonna be the most obnoxious friend ever if that’s the case,” he mumbles as though in protest of the date.

 

Craig allows himself to be pulled towards him, and lightly places his hands on Tyler’s hips. “Yeah, because you’re not going to piss off Evan and Brock if you’re rude to the poor guy,” he drawls.

 

“Fuck that guy,” Tyler replies immediately. “I’ve got you,” he presses a slow, gentle kiss against Craig’s lips.

 

Craig smiles into the kiss, but reluctantly pulls away a moment later. “Y’know… Brock  _is_  pretty reasonable… if you explained to him what was going on, he might cancel it…?” he suggests, wary of what Tyler would think about that.

 

Tyler raises an eyebrow. “He also might tell Evan, and I’m afraid I don’t trust Brock enough to risk it. Plus, I’m kinda curious,” he admits.

 

Craig rolls his eyes. “Of course you are,” he mumbles to himself, and then frowns. “…I trust Brock enough,” he says quietly.

 

He presses a gentle kiss to Craig’s cheek, cupping his face. “I know you do,” he replies, voice soft and kind.

 

“But you don’t,” Craig says with a frown, playing with the hem of Tyler’s shirt in a nervous habit.

 

“I don’t trust the guy he set me up with. He’s not you,” he points out, copying Craig’s frown.

 

Craig can’t help but smile at that, and he lightly shrugs. “Maybe he won’t be that bad? Like you suffer through one date with him?” he offers, smiling sheepishly up at him.

 

Tyler looks away, lost in thought. “He better not wear plaid. If he wears plaid, and he’s as hot as Brock probably thinks he is, I’m totally gonna fuck him,” he says, and it’s not immediately obvious that he’s joking.

 

Craig freezes. “Are… are you serious?” he asks, suddenly worried that maybe their relationship (if they could even call it that) wasn’t as secure as he thought, and that Tyler would leave him if he found someone better.

 

“Nah,” he replies casually. “You, though. I don’t think I could handle you in a formal setting wearing something ungodly sexy,” he never falters once, but the look he sends Craig is deadly serious.

 

Craig chuckles and he blushes furiously, unsure as to what to say that. Tyler steps closer to him, “what, are you imagining it now?” Tyler smirks devilishly.

 

“I wasn’t until you said that,” Craig admits, burying his face into Tyler’s shoulder.

 

Tyler grins, leaning down and kissing Craig’s head. “Definitely don’t imagine all the things my lips could do to you either,” he adds sarcastically.

 

“Maybe you should show me,” Craig mumbles into his shirt and bites his lip at the thought.

 

“Would you like that?” Tyler hums, leaning down to press his lips against Craig’s neck.

 

Craig shrugs. “Maybe. Depends on how good of a kisser you are, really,” he teases.

 

Tyler grins deviously at him,“One way to find out.”


	7. Chapter 7

“Evan, I swear to God, if you two fucking clowns pull another stunt like that I’ll carve out your eyeballs with a spork,” Tyler glares furiously at him, which he’s been doing the entire ride back to Evan’s apartment from the date.

 

“You didn’t have a good time?” Evan asks, grinning widely as he drives and clearly had enjoyed himself the entire night.

 

“Fuck you,” he grumbles, eyes narrowed in anger. “You were so busy staring down Brock like a lovesick puppy you didn’t even see the guy, and if you had you wouldn’t blame me,” Tyler points out, clearly more pissed than he was letting on.

 

“Come on Tyler, he wasn’t  _that_  bad,” Evan insists, shrugging lightly, in much too good of a mood following his date with Brock to be bothered by his anger.

 

Tyler glares him down, still in a particularly salty mood about his ‘date’. “He was fucking Irish!” He snaps. “Did you hear him? That accent just barely covers up the fact that the dude is dumb as shit!”

 

“Dude, that’s kinda racist,” Evan points out, a little amused. “And some people like guys with accents you know, and some people find… ditziness to be endearing. Don’t be so hard on him.”

 

“Yeah, well I don’t. I feel like Brock did that shit on purpose, cause he thought it would be funny,” he grumbles under his breath, still rather pissed.

 

Evan shrugs as he stops his car outside of his apartment building. “I don’t know about Brock, but I thought it was hilarious,” Evan grins at him as he hops out of the car. “And for someone who doesn’t like accents or ditziness, you sure do like to make a lot of jokes about dating my ditzy British stepbrother.”

 

“That’s different,” Tyler replies, voice fading to a soft tone as he got out of the car.

 

“I guess that would be different, because you’re not actually interested in dating him,” Evan agrees with a curt nod as he locks his car, before leading the way into his apartment building.

 

Tyler follows closely behind. “No, I never once said I had any interest in dating Brian. Unless you started hearing shit,” he points out. “You’re just hearing what you want cause you don’t want me near Craig,” Tyler accuses.

 

“If you’re not interested in dating  _Brian_ , that’s alright, but you never would have went on that date if you didn’t want to date  _someone_. I know you well enough to know that you don’t do things you don’t want to do, so clearly you must have hoping to get something out of this,” Evan points out.

 

“Yeah.  _Something_. Not telling you what it was, though,” Tyler mutters, opening the apartment door with his spare key. “I just know it sure isn’t that fuckin’ guy, no matter how sexy he was,” Tyler replies, still sounding rather upset at Evan.

 

“But you admit he was good looking at least!” Evan points out with a grin, as if Tyler just proved him right. “See? Brock does have good taste in guys!”

 

Tyler groans loudly, shutting the door behind Evan. “Fuck you, stop it. I don’t give a shit how hot he was, bring him near me again and I’ll hit on  _you_ ,” he glares at Evan.

 

“Sorry Tyler but I already have a boyfriend. You’ll have to find someone else to flirt with,” Evan teases as he steps further into the apartment, finally discovering that Craig had fallen asleep on the couch again, the TV playing in the background. “He’s been doing that a lot lately,” Evan comments in a quieter tone, nodding towards Craig’s sleeping form.

 

Tyler watches him with a fond smile, for once passing up on the opportunity to hit on Craig. “Waiting for us to get back,” he replies in a hushed tone, walking over to gently scoop Craig into his arms.

 

Evan watched him curiously, but before he had a chance to comment on what he was doing, his phone began to ring. He tugged it out of his pocket, cursing quietly under his breath when he saw who it was. “I have to take this,” he excuses himself, and answers the phone and disappears into his bedroom.

 

Tyler doesn’t say anything, instead focusing on Craig and carrying him back to his room. Craig stirs in his arms, and snakes his arms around his neck. “I could get used to this,” he mutters quietly, half asleep.

 

“Sleeping in your bed is much more comfortable,” Tyler murmurs softly, gently kissing his forehead.

 

“Yeah, but having you carry me to bed is pretty nice too,” Craig smiles and places a soft kiss on his neck. Tyler smiles at him, setting Craig down in his bed and curling up beside him. “I could get used to this too,” Craig adds as he shuffles next to him, throwing an arm across his chest and burying his face into his shoulder.

 

“I know, I could too,” Tyler hums, wrapping his arms tightly around Craig.

 

“What do we tell Evan if he ever catches us like this?” Craig frowns.

 

“He won’t,” Tyler hums, kissing Craig’s forehead. “Plus he’s pretty dead set on finding somebody for me, and I’m assuming it’s so I stop hitting on you,” he chuckles.

 

Craig is quiet for a moment, and then he sighs. “He really won’t like this, will he?” he mutters dejectedly, heart sinking.

 

Tyler looks over at him. “You’re focusing on the wrong part of this. It’s not about Evan being happy. It’s about you being happy,” he points out softly.

 

“You make me happy,” Craig says softly and lightly kisses his neck again.

 

At this, Tyler smiles fondly. “Go to bed,” he replies, gently rubbing Craig’s back.

“I’m in bed,” Craig teases him, but does as he’s told anyway and snuggles into him again, resting his head on his shoulder and slowly falling asleep.

 

Tyler lays there for awhile, listening to Craig’s breathing and for any sound of Evan moving around. At the first sound of Evan, Tyler carefully wiggles out of his grip, kisses his cheek with a very soft “I love you,” pressed against his skin before he leaves the room.

 

Evan’s writing his usual note to Craig to tell him he’s at Brock’s when Tyler walks in. “Sorry about that phone call. It was Marcel. He was asking about the car we brought him to fix up,” he sighs, rubbing his face as he drops the pen. “I feel like the leader of a crime ring sometimes. I have  _employees_  for fuck’s sake,” he chuckles darkly.

 

Tyler walks over, wrapping one arm around Evan and pulling the man toward his chest as he sets his phone on the counter. “Don’t worry about it. Doesn’t Brock get suspicious about you coming in at the weirdest hours?” Tyler mumbles.

 

Evan shrugs. “I just tell him we were at a bar,” he explains. “Though he does wonder why I never invite him… and he kind of thinks you’re a dick because I told him that I’m never drunk because you make me drive us.”

 

“You asshole!” Tyler snaps, lightly smacking him. “Stop lying to Brock before he dumps your sorry ass,” Tyler warns, heading to the door.

 

Evan is silent as they leave the apartment, thinking deeply about what Tyler just said. “So… you think I should tell him?” he asks with a frown, clearly torn about doing just that.

 

“Fuck no, don’t tell him. Just… be vague. Whenever Craig asks I just say we went out to do some errands,” he shrugs, then thinks back on what Craig said. “Tell him if you want to,” he relents, hating the effect Craig had on him.

 

“Maybe I should tell him,” Evan sighs. “I can’t keep hiding something like this from him forever… though if I tell Brock then I might have to tell Craig too…”

 

“Just don’t lie to him. He’ll be pissed when he finds out you’re lying,” Tyler advises, stopping once they reached the car.

 

“I’ll think about it,” Evan resolves, as he unlocks his car again and hops into the driver’s seat. Tyler doesn’t say anything, just gets in and takes a moment to think.

 

They ride in pensive silence as they head to Lui’s garage, and go through the usual routine of putting on their masks and concealing their pistols in their waistbands, leaving Evan’s car there as they wander off to find a new car to steal. Tyler finally speaks up, breaking the silence as they wove their way throughout the city. “Why Brian, though? Of all people? Like have you ever actually listened to him talk?” He asks aloud, but it’s not immediately clear that he’s talking to Evan.

 

“Are you still bothered about this?” Evan asks, rolling his eyes, as he examines every car they see for one that might sell for a lot of money.

 

“Very!” Tyler snaps back, shooting him a glare before sweeping his gaze over the cars around them.

 

“He isn’t that bad Tyler,” Evan says for what feels like the umpteenth time, already exasperated with this conversation, as he really didn’t want to argue about this with him right now.

 

Tyler looks over. “You keep saying that,” he mumbles, trailing off and focusing more so on the cars than Evan.

 

“Because he isn’t. You’d know that if you gave him a chance,” Evan insists, shooting him an annoyed glare.

 

“You know how when you would want a toy as a kid, you’d focus for hours on that toy because it was your favorite? Forget all the other toys?” Tyler asks, beginning to lose focus on their surroundings as he tried to pour more thought into his words.

 

“Yeah?” Evan sighs, and stops them both so he could eye up a particularly expensive car across the street.

 

Tyler stops abruptly, looking down at Evan in silence for a moment before following his gaze. “Won’t be easy,” he breathes out.

 

“Yeah, and it probably has an alarm too,” Evan sighs, and continues walking. “What were you saying?” he asks, even though he knows that he’ll probably regret continuing this conversation.

 

“Maybe that’s why I shut him out,” Tyler shrugs, looking around at other cars and biting his lip. “Nothing good,” he mutters to himself.

 

“We’ll keep looking for a little longer,” Evan decides, frowning as he tried to figure out what Tyler was trying to tell him. “What do you mean that’s why you shut him out?”

 

Tyler doesn’t look over, too distracted by cars. “Eyes on the prize, baby,” he replies vaguely, eyes lingering on a few newer looking trucks.

 

“What were you trying to say Tyler?” Evan presses him further, ignoring the cars in favour of getting his best friend to talk to him.

 

Tyler walks over to examine the cars further. “I mean, like maybe you’re looking at the wrong person,” he shrugs quietly, peering into the car to see how new it was.

 

“…Which person should I be looking at?” Evan asks slowly, eyeing him curiously. “Is there somebody else that you would’ve rathered we set you up with?”

 

“Yeah. Several rocks, a clam. Hell, I’d rather date a cat,” he mutters to himself. “Could you please focus on the damn cars?” he glares at Evan, more than ready to drop this topic for good.

 

“You’re going to die alone with nine cats if you don’t open up more to the possibility of dating somebody, even if it isn’t Brian,” Evan points out bluntly.

 

Tyler looks over at him and decides to abandon this parking lot and find another, walking for a bit as he didn’t want to get lost. “Yeah, doesn’t mean I wanna date Brian,” he mutters as he turns down an alley. “Just, lemme do it on my own,” he glares over at Evan.

 

“Alright,” Evan concedes. “I won’t set you up with any more of Brock’s friends.”

 

Tyler immediately glares at him, obviously not trusting his word choice. He bites his lip, but doesn’t say anything more beyond that and wanders into a different parking lot.

 

“What about this one?” Evan says, nodding towards the first car they saw.

 

“It’ll work,” Tyler immediately replies, tired of wandering around with a man who wasn’t even paying attention.

 

“Keep lookout,” Evan orders him as he opens his gym bag to start rummaging for his tools, and then begins to break into the car, methodically inserting the wedge into the top of the door and sliding the iron bar through the gap.

 

Tyler steps away, eyes flashing around the quiet night. He swears he can feel his heart pounding against his chest as he looks around, getting a sinking feeling about how quiet it was. He and Evan seemed to have a knack for bad luck. Evan was paying little to no attention to their surroundings as he pokes the rod around in the car, concentrating on trying to unlock the door.

 

Tyler flicks his gaze to Evan and once he looks back over to the street, he sees a cop car out of nowhere. “Evan!” He hisses, heartbeat picking up as he runs over to him.  

 

Evan looks up and spots the squad car, and immediately yanks the tools out of the car. His first instinct is to run, but he knows running would only arouse suspicion, so he drops the tools to the ground and kicks them under the car instead. He didn’t have much time to think of a plan and in hindsight, pulling off both of their masks and kissing Tyler against the car probably wasn’t necessary, but in his panic, it’s all he could think of at the time.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Caora and I have a giant soft spot for platonic Tyvan, so that'll explain about half of this goddamn story.

Tyler tenses up immediately, hands on Evan’s chest but he doesn’t push him away. After a moment’s hesitation he lets one hand rest on his neck, pulling Evan closer against him and kissing him with the same passion he poured into everything he did.

 

Evan keeps an eye on the cop car as it drives past, and the second it’s out of sight, he pushes Tyler away. “Dude what the fuck?!” he exclaims, clearly annoyed at how into it Tyler got.

 

Tyler looks shocked at his reaction. “You kissed  _me_ , Evan. I just wanted to look convincing,” he retorts, taking a few steps away but lingering closer by this time.

 

“It didn’t need to be  _that_  convincing,” Evan frowns, leaning down to pick up their masks and his tools from where he kicked them beneath the car.

 

Distantly, Tyler scoffs. “Whatever. You totally liked it,” he mutters under his breath, keeping his back to Evan so he could watch out for another cop.

 

“I really didn’t,” Evan says as he stands back up, handing Tyler his mask before slipping his own back on. “When was the last time you kissed someone before me? Because you got way too into that, so it must’ve been a while…”

 

Tyler pauses, letting his mask drop to his side as he thinks. “Fuck, um. I dunno, maybe yesterday?” he asks himself aloud, not sure why he let Evan know that.

 

“Yesterday? Who did you kiss yesterday?” Evan asks, surprised and curious, as he inserts the wedge and rod back into the car.

 

“Not Brian, that’s for damn sure,” he mutters as he pulls his mask on. “Don’t worry about it, there’s a good reason I haven’t brought him up to you,” Tyler replies, keeping his eyes on the road.

 

“Why, are you embarrassed of me or something?” Evan asks jokingly, and then after another second of thought, asks “Is that why you were so against going out with Brian then? Because you already have somebody else?”

 

Tyler shifts, finding that the more they’re on the topic the less he likes it. “Mmm, kinda. We’re not exclusively dating yet,” he shrugs, letting his mind wander briefly.

 

“Do you want to?” Evan asks, grinning to himself when he unlocks the car, grateful that he didn’t have as much difficulty this time.

 

“Yeah,” Tyler replies, nervously biting his lip. “A lot. I really like him,” he turns around suddenly to find Evan has unlocked the car, so he walks over.

 

“Then you should go for it,” Evan encourages him as he hops into the car and opens the passenger side door for Tyler. “And then introduce me so I can make sure he’s good enough for you,” he teases, pulling the drill and screwdriver out of the bag so he could begin tweaking the ignition.

 

Tyler gets in the car, glad his mask hid his grin. “Oh, trust me Evan. You’ll love him,” he replies.

 

“And you still didn’t tell me about him? Tyler, I’m hurt,” Evan jokes, smiling to himself as he focused intently at the task on hand. “But seriously, you should have told me. I would’ve had Brock call off that date if I had known you were into someone.”

 

“I think you guys would be best friends,” Tyler hums to himself, biting back laughter. “He’s okay with it, though. He knows it didn’t mean anything,” Tyler fades off near the end, holding back an ‘I hope’.

 

“I still don’t understand why you’d let me set you up with someone when you were interested in someone else. Why go through with that?” he asks, removing the drill from the ignition and inserting the screwdriver, turning it like a key and starting the car.

 

“I was curious about who you guys set me up with,” Tyler shrugs, turning a deadly serious glare on Evan. “Never again,” he tells him.

 

“Maybe if it goes well with this guy, I won’t have to set you up with anyone ever again anyway,” Evan shrugs, and begins driving back to Lui and Nogla’s. Tyler bites his lip the whole rest of the drive home, barely able to keep himself from laughing.

 

As they drive, Evan’s thoughts drift to the kiss and he sighs. “I’m going to have to tell Brock about tonight,” he says with a frown. “I don’t want to hide something like that, or else he’d think I cheated on him…”

 

Tyler is suddenly struck by a similar thought. “Shit, I have no idea what I’m going to tell him,” he hisses, knowing Craig will kiss him as soon as he gets home.

 

“You said you’re not exclusive, right? So you have that excuse, I don’t… I might have to tell him everything,” Evan continues, shoulders sinking dejectedly at the mere thought of having to explain everything that he and Tyler had been doing lately.

 

“Yeah, nah. I… He’s kind of possessive, in a way,” Tyler mumbles as he takes off his mask, hating that of all people it had to be  _Evan_  that kissed him.

 

“How long have you been… doing whatever you’ve been doing? He might not be that mad at you if it’s only been a little while, especially considering you’re not technically dating,” Evan tries to reassure him, but he’s too wrapped up in his own potential relationship problems to put his heart into it.

 

Tyler rubs his face and groans,“Why, Evan?” he mumbles through his hands.

 

“Why what?” Evan frowns, fingers drumming against the steering as they wait at a red light.

 

Tyler looks over at him,“You  _know_  what. Why’d you kiss me?” Tyler presses, eyes narrowing at him.

 

“Why did  _you_  have to use tongue?!” Evan shot back, glaring over at him.

 

“I was  _being_  convincing!” Tyler retorts, returning the glare despite how much he knew he didn’t have a real answer.

 

“We were convincing enough! If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you  _wanted_  to make out with me,” Evan accuses him.

 

“Oh, trust me, the last thing I wanna do is kiss you again. You suck,” Tyler replies, and although it initially seems like he’s joking, he isn’t.

 

“You’re not great either,” Evan frowns, and almost shudders at the thought.

 

Tyler throws his mask at Evan. “Bullshit!” he snaps, eyes narrowed.

 

Evan jumps a little as the mask hits him, and he eyes him surprised from behind his own owl mask, not expecting him to be that insulted. “I’m sorry?” he apologises, unsure if he should or not.

 

He seems to let it go with nothing more than,“I’d kiss you again just to prove a point but I do  _not_  want my kind of boyfriend tasting you when I kiss him.”

 

“Yeah, well I don’t particularly want to kiss you again either,” Evan frowns, finally pulling in to their destination. He opens the garage door and drives the car in, parking it next to the last car they took but haven’t sold yet.

 

Tyler glances at the cars,“If you don’t wanna go on a second date with me, Evan, just say so,” Tyler replies jokingly.

 

Evan finally pulls off his mask and sends him an indignant look, smile tugging at his lips. “I don’t want to go on a second date with you,” he complies, and then adds “Well…” he pauses, as he hops out of the car. “We do have a certain mugger that needs taken care of…”

 

“I know,” Tyler replies, walking over to him. “Don’t do anything stupid,” he tells him.

 

“But we do need to do something though…” Evan frowns, jaw clenching as he shoves his mask into his gym bag. “We can’t let him get away with that, Tyler.”

 

Tyler watches him for a moment. “Yeah, I know that. But we can’t go in there half assed and risk something happening to you,” he points out. “We need to plan. Bring our guns, hidden,” he muses. “Make him feel like he’s in control.”

 

“…Are you suggesting we  _kill_  him?” Evan asks slowly, expression blank, and it’s difficult to tell as to whether or not he agrees with this.

 

“Are you saying we  _shouldn’t_? He stabbed your brother,” Tyler replies, sounding confused.

 

“ _I’m saying_  we need to think this out fully before we commit. Do you understand how much trouble we could get into if we murder someone?” Evan asks in an unusually serious tone, watching him closely.

 

Tyler pauses. “So, what? Give him a stern talking to? After everything he did to you?” he demands, not seeming to realize how protectively close he was to Evan.

 

“I was thinking we beat him up a little. I didn’t think murder was on the table,” Evan sighs, looking down at his feet as he gives that option some more consideration. “But I suppose he would deserve it…”

 

“ _Evan!_ ” Tyler snaps, gently tilting his chin up. “We’re not killing him. We’d go to jail, and then there’d be no one to take care of Craig,” he points out, letting his thumb brush against Evan’s chin before he drops his hand away.

 

“You’re the one who suggested it,” Evan replies defensively, and then sighs again when he realises that Tyler was right. “But you have a point,” he concedes. “So what’s the plan then? Ambush him at his own game?”

 

“I dunno, what did he do last time?” Tyler shrugs, keeping a close eye on their surroundings.

 

Evan clenches his jaw and his shoulders tense as he thinks back to that night. “He was hiding in an alley that we happened to walk down, and he jumped out at Craig and pinned him against the wall and held a knife to his throat the second my dumbass of a brother started waving his wallet around.”

 

“There’s more, isn’t there?” Tyler asks after a pause. “Aside from the stabbing,” he adds, one hand cupping Evan’s face.

 

Evan pauses and shifts on his feet as he debated as to whether or not he wanted to tell him that part. “…I tried to approach him to pull him off of Craig, and he kept spouting shit about me being cute or something, and once I was close enough, he shoves the knife into Craig’s shoulder and then kisses my cheek, before bolting. I tried to chase him, but Craig stopped me, and I let him get away…”

 

Tyler frowns. “He thinks it’s a game if he’s bold enough to kiss your cheek  _and_  call you cute in the same moment he stabs your brother,” Tyler points out, letting one hand rest on Evan’s shoulder. “We’ll find this guy, and when we do, we’ll fuck him up,” he mumbles, already coming up with a plan in his head.

 

“We better,” Evan sighs heavily. “I don’t want to let him get away again…”

 

“Why not… Like, draw him out. One of us goes alone through the shady part of town, super vulnerable. He seems to have a thing for you,” Tyler mumbles. “When he strikes, come out of the shadows and fight back,” he looks at Evan, as though for confirmation.

 

“So I lure him out and you jump him?” Evan nods. “It could work.”

 

Tyler sighs, walking toward the door. “All that’s left now is to find out where he might be,” he replies, glad that they have a game plan.

 

“We could try the alley he jumped Craig in?” Evan suggests, but is quick to shrug it off. “I don’t know if he’ll hide in the same place twice though…”

 

“If he knows it works, I don’t see why not,” Tyler replies. “Good a place as any.”

 

“It’s worth a shot at least,” Evan sighs as they leave the garage and he locks the door behind him.

 

Tyler lets his worried gaze linger on Evan for a moment. “Ev,” he eventually mumbles as they walk, and Evan looks up at him curiously. Tyler stops walking, as though to prove his point about how serious he was as he gently took Evan’s face in his hands. “Be careful,” he tells him in a soft voice as he kisses Evan’s forehead.

 

Evan smiles fondly to himself. “You too,” he replies and claps him on the back before hopping in his car and driving off, leaving Tyler to find his own way home, steeling himself for the difficult conversation he was going to have with Brock once they meet.

 

Tyler walks home in calm, collected silence trusting that Craig would be sound asleep when he got to the apartment. Upon arriving, he discovered that both his phone and the note were left untouched on the counter, and Craig was still tucked in bed in much the same position that he left him in, just as he expected. Tyler takes his shoes off at the door, walking straight to Craig’s room and cuddling up next to him, still not sure if he was ready for the next time he’d go out with Evan.

 

Craig snuggles up next to him as soon as he lies down, slipping his arms around him. “More errands?” he mumbles, half asleep.

 

Tyler bites his lip. “Yeah,” he mumbles, trying not to blurt out anything more.

 

“I don’t understand why you run your errands at night…” he frowns.

 

“Less people,” Tyler easily replies, taking a moment to debate with himself. “Remind me to tell you something tomorrow morning when you wake up,” is all he says, one hand resting in the middle of Craig’s back.

 

Craig tenses a little. “…Why not now?” he asks, already worrying about whatever Tyler could possibly tell him.

 

Instead of outright telling him, Tyler elects to show him and tilts Craig’s chin up, slowly kissing him. Craig melts into the kiss almost immediately and he kisses him just as tenderly back, hand resting on his waist. Tyler pulls away much quicker than he wanted to. “Notice anything different?” He asks quietly.

 

“…Am I supposed to?” he asks curiously, pouting slightly.

 

Tyler shakes his head. “I guess not,” he mumbles to himself, pausing to think back on Evan’s kiss.

 

“Am I missing something?” Craig looks up at him with a frown, worried that he might have offended him by not noticing whatever he was supposed to.

 

Tyler’s voice is surprisingly soft when he does speak up. “Just… Evan kissed me earlier,” he replies, dragging his eyes from the ceiling to Craig.

 

Craig freezes, heart stopping for a split second. “…What? Why?” he asks, and then shakes his head. “No, you’re fucking with me, Evan wouldn’t do that… he wouldn’t do that to Brock…”

 

“When we were out earlier, something went wrong. He panicked,” Tyler shrugs. “He told Brock, so I figured it was only fair I tell you.” Tyler’s eyes don’t leave Craig this time.

 

“What the fuck happened to you two that  _kissing_  was a reasonable response?” Craig asks with a harsh frown, and doesn’t look at him, opting to look down at their entangled legs instead.

 

“I don’t think Evan would want me to tell you that,” Tyler hums after a moment of thought. “Just… It was really bad, and I don’t blame him for losing his shit,” he replies, reaching down to tangle one hand in Craig’s hair.

 

Craig pouts, not accepting that answer at all. “What the hell do you two do at night?” he asks, looking up at him worriedly.

 

“I can’t tell you that, either. I’m sorry,” Tyler replies quietly. “Just… know that I leave my phone here when I leave, as a promise I’m coming back.”

 

Craig is silent for a moment, a myriad of thoughts running through his mind. “That… really doesn’t make me feel better, Tyler,” he admits. “You two aren’t trying to find that fucking mugger, are you?” he asks, old concerns from when he was in hospital flooding back to him.

 

“We aren’t trying to find the mugger,” Tyler replies, glad he can tell the truth. They aren’t trying to find the mugger- they’re luring him out.

 

“Good. I don’t want you two risking your lives for my sake,” Craig says softly yet sternly, and runs his hands down Tyler’s chest.

 

“Go back to sleep,” Tyler replies, gently kissing his forehead. “I’ll be here when you wake up.”

 

Craig nods and shuffles closer to him again, resting his head on his shoulder, but can’t fall asleep, not yet. “I don’t like that you’re keeping secrets from me,” he admits, and then sighs. “But I trust you… please don’t do anything to make me regret that…”

 

Tyler pauses, considering the close encounter today and the others he’s sure are to come. “I’ll try,” he replies after a moment of consideration.

 

“I want you to do more than ‘try’…” Craig mutters, unable to shake off his worry.

 

“Can’t speak for Evan,” he mumbles, recalling his odd willingness to murder.

 

“I’ll talk to him later. I want  _you_  to promise me that I can trust you not to do anything stupid, that I can trust you to be careful and not put your life at risk for whatever reason,” Craig says, and props himself up on his elbows to look him in the eye to let him know that he’s serious.

 

After taking a moment to consider this, Tyler speaks. “If I break the promise, I won’t come back,” he replies.

 

“That’s why you  _have_  to make the promise, Tyler, so that I’ll know you’ll come back,” Craig says, voice wavering with desperation.

 

Tyler leans over and pecks his lips. “I’ll always try to come back,” he replies, and after he pauses and sees how torn up Craig is, he relents. “I promise.”

 

Satisfied, Craig leans down and kisses him, before rolling back onto his side and cuddles into him again. “Thank you,” he mutters, and finally settles down to sleep.

 

* * *

 

Craig stirs awake the next morning to find a pair of arms wrapped tightly around him, and it takes him a moment to remember what happened the night before, vague memories of tired kisses and whispered promises in the middle of the night swarming him, and the worries and concerns he felt the previous night came flooding back. He lightly bit his lip as he watches Tyler sleep for a moment, quietly wondering what he Evan were up to that they refused to tell him about. It couldn’t have been good for them both to be so secretive, and he hoped they weren’t up to something dangerous.  

 

Sighing deeply to himself, Craig cuddles up closer to him, and watches quietly as Tyler’s chest rises and falls as he breathes. He doesn’t understand why he’s just as concerned for Tyler’s safety as he is for his own brother’s, and then it hits him like a freight train, and his heart starts beating fast and he can’t breathe, and it almost feels like he’s drowning.


	9. Chapter 9

He  _loves_  Tyler. At some point (and he wasn’t entirely sure when), his little crush blossomed into something much bigger, and he fell for him, and fell for him  _hard_. His chest flutters and his stomach flips, and he can’t help but smile to himself. Part of him knew that loving him only meant he would hurt that much more if he ever broke his promise and didn’t come home to him one night, but he shoves that thought back in favour of basking in the bliss of lying next to someone he was in love with.

 

Not wanting to pull himself from Tyler’s warmth just yet, he lies where he is for a little while longer, and places a light kiss on his neck. Tyler groans lightly, shifting only to pull Craig closer as he clearly had no intention of getting up yet. “Tyler? You awake?” Craig whispers softly, not wanting to wake him if he was still asleep.

 

Tyler cracks an eye to look at him. “No,” he grumbles, pausing to consider getting up.

 

“Funny,” Craig drawls, rolling his eyes with an affectionate smile. “You should be a comedian.”

 

“I’m hilarious, I know,” he replies, sitting up suddenly.

 

Craig rolls off of him and onto the bed when Tyler sits up, and looks up at him curiously. “Getting up already?”

 

Tyler groans loudly in response, pulling his shirt off and walking to the kitchen. Craig lightly bit his lip as he watched Tyler take his shirt off, shamelessly ogling the way the muscles in his back moved as he did so, and then hopped out of bed to follow after him.

 

Tyler doesn’t look back at him, in the middle of grabbing a box of pancake mix from the top shelf. “I’m the tallest person in this house by a foot, how the hell did you clowns reach this?” He mutters under his breath.

 

Craig shrugs. “Evan can reach the corner of the boxes,” he explains, plucking the note Evan had left for him the night before off the counter. “Speaking of Evan, he’s at Brock’s and knowing him, he’ll probably eat breakfast there, so I guess it’s just us this morning,” he grins at him.

 

Tyler nods, wandering around the kitchen and digging out whatever he deemed necessary for pancakes. Craig’s words suddenly bring back memories of last night and he wonders how Evan’s night went in relation to telling Brock, reminding himself to ask about it the next time he saw Evan.

 

As he watches Tyler flit around the kitchen, Craig hops up and sits on the counter, somewhere where he knew he wouldn’t be in the way, and watches as Tyler gathers ingredients with a fond smile.

 

Once Tyler finds everything he needs, he gently kisses Craig before setting everything up, mixing the pancake batter. A comfortable silence falls between them as Tyler begins making the pancakes and Craig observes him from the side, watching his every move with a dumb lovestruck look in his eye. Once Tyler pours the batter out, he lets it sit for a minute and turns to Craig, immediately smiling at the look in his eyes. “Staring’s rude, didn’t your mother ever tell you that?” he teases.

 

Craig snaps out of whatever daze he had fallen into, cheeks heating up in embarrassment that Tyler had caught him staring. “Not my fault you’re easy on the eyes,” he grins with a light shrug.

 

Tyler shakes his head fondly. “Here I am just barely managing to keep your crazy fucking brother away and you’re over here flaunting me around like I’m some hot piece of ass,” he mutters as he kisses Craig’s cheek before turning back to the pancakes and flipping them carefully.

 

“Evan isn’t crazy, he’s just… overprotective,” Craig says choosing his words carefully. “But I don’t really care what he thinks anyway. I’m twenty fucking years old, I’m free to do whatever  _or whoever_  I want,” he says adamantly, biting his lip as he eyes Tyler up and down.

 

Tyler looks over at him. “Okay, yeah, like I get your drift but… not this very second. I’m making pancakes,” he gestures to the pancakes, poking them warily before deciding they were done and managing to get them on two plates.

Craig slides off the counter once he realises that the pancakes were ready and pulls out a seat at the table instead. “So you don’t care what Evan thinks then?” he asks, slightly worried about his answer.

 

Tyler frowns at that. “I mean, as a general rule I do, he’s my best friend,” he shrugs, walking over and setting the plates down on the table. “I just sort of forwent that for the sake of you,” he replies. “He likes me, you like me. What could go wrong?” he points out, leaning down to kiss Craig’s neck before he walks away to make coffee.

 

Craig shrugs, and dug into his breakfast, not bothering to wait for Tyler. “True, but… aren’t you worried that he won’t approve of this? It wouldn’t be the first time…” he frowns.

 

He hesitates at that. “I mean…” Tyler stops to think about all the things he and Evan have done together, especially recently with all of Evan’s murderous thoughts and behaviors when it came to Syndicate. “Fuck. Goddammit Craig, now I am!” he grumbles, getting two cups of coffee and sitting beside Craig.

 

“I mean, he’d get over it…” Craig says in an attempt to reassure both himself and Tyler, but then adds “Probably. Maybe. Hopefully…”

 

Tyler doesn’t do more than groan and cover his face. “Fuck, I’m so dead,” he whines quietly, appetite completely forgotten about.

 

“He’s not going to kill you Tyler, he’s not  _that_  bad,” Craig says, rolling his eyes. “I mean, he might disown you at worst, but he’s not going to kill you.”

 

Tyler says nothing, going back to eating his pancakes despite how terribly focused he is on the door, irrational fear piqued at the idea that Evan might be home any minute to flay him alive. As he nibbles on his own pancakes, Craig watches the way he was nervously eyeing the door and sighs dejectedly. “We could stop if you’re really that worried about it,” Craig mumbles, avoiding eye contact by staring down at his plate, heart hurting. “It’s not like we’re dating or anything anyway…”

 

This attracts Tyler’s attention and he drops his fork, leaning back in his chair to stare at Craig. “No. I just…” He stops, getting up and grabbing Craig’s wrist, dragging him out to the living room. He doesn’t let go until he’s already on the couch, pulling Craig into his arms. “No,” he mumbles softly, burying his face into Craig’s hair.

 

Craig snakes his arms around him and hugs him tightly, glad and relieved that he was as against that idea as he was. “Good,” he mumbles, and buries his face into his shoulder. Tyler relaxes into the couch, flicking the TV on and searching for something decent as he covered Craig’s face in kisses. “We haven’t even finished our pancakes yet,” Craig says softly, but makes no move to get up, smiling brightly as he allows Tyler to shower him in affection.

 

Tyler just grins, nuzzling his face into Craig’s neck. “If you’re that fuckin’ concerned, be my guest to go eat them,” he replies, clearly having no intention to get up either as he continues peppering slow, gentle kisses along Craig’s neck.

 

“We could always eat them later, they’re just as good cold,” Craig hums, tilting his head a little.

 

“Is that sarcasm?” Tyler asks, lips ghosting over Craig’s neck. “Because if you’d rather have the pancakes, I can wait,” he replies.

 

“No, they can wait,” he says quickly, and then smirks teasingly at him. “They weren’t that great anyway.”

 

Tyler narrows his eyes, glaring up at Craig. “Keep talking like that and I’ll bend you over the couch and fuck you raw right now,” he threatens, biting down on Craig’s neck and gliding his lips down until he finds his collarbone.

 

Craig gasps as Tyler’s teeth sink into his neck, back unconsciously arcing and he presses closer against him. “Is that supposed to be a threat?” he asks, still smirking to himself.

 

Tyler hums against his neck. “It is if Evan comes home and sees you, bent over that couch looking so pretty,” he almost sings, as though he’s picturing it now.

 

“Can you not… talk about my brother when we’re doing shit like this,” Craig pouts. “And maybe we should go to my bedroom, just in case…”

 

“Whatever you say,” Tyler replies, shifting for a moment to make sure he wouldn’t drop Craig before getting up, every so often squeezing his ass as he walked down the hall. Craig wraps his arms around Tyler’s neck, keeping a tight grip on him in the off chance that Tyler’s hands slipped, and he kissed him. Tyler kisses him back, slamming him against his bedroom door for a moment, earning a moan from Craig as he did so, before shifting one hand to open it and immediately stepping inside, closing the door behind him.

 

Tyler sets him down on the bed, grinding their hips together and letting one hand slip under his shirt and run up the length of his bare chest. Craig gasps at his touch, and runs his hands down Tyler’s bare back, and pulls away a little to kiss down his jaw.

 

Tyler’s hands are quick to skim his chest again, tugging at the waistband to his pants. “Shirt first,” Craig mumbles against his skin, and tugs at his own shirt, pushing Tyler away long enough so that he could pull it up over his head. The second his shirt is gone, Tyler leans in to kiss his neck, unbuckling his pants and sliding one hand in to stroke Craig’s dick. Craig moans and grabs on to his shoulders, hands sliding down to his biceps as he whimpers.

 

Tyler lets his hand tauntingly ghost over Craig’s dick, almost stroking him. “Tyler!” Craig whines, squirming underneath him and arcing his hips up towards him in an attempt to get him to touch him.

 

“Fuck, that’s the most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard,” Tyler mumbles under his breath, wrapping his hand around Craig.

 

“Tyler,” Craig gasps again, pulling him as close as possible, and kisses him deeply.

 

Tyler slides Craig’s pants and boxers further down, just enough to release his dick and strokes him. He immediately pours his heart into the kiss, entirely lost in Craig. Craig hums against his lips and snakes his arms around his neck again. Tyler wraps his entire hand around Craig’s dick, gently brushing his fingers around and over it, and Craig moans in contentment.

 

They could hear the front door open and shut in the other room as Evan comes home. Tyler freezes like a deer caught in headlights, taking just a second before quietly shifting away, looking himself up and down before motioning to Craig to stay, and slipping out of the room to greet Evan. Craig looks up at him panicked, but does as he’s told regardless and stays put, pulling the blankets around him.


	10. Chapter 10

Evan turns to Tyler as he approaches him, and seems to be surprised to see him. “I wasn’t expecting you to still be here,” he says, eyes drifting down to his bare chest. “Where’s your shirt?”

 

Tyler narrows his eyes at Evan. “I sleep shirtless, sue me,” he shrugs, walking over to clean up the breakfast from earlier. “Do you not like seeing your dates around the morning after or something?” Tyler asks, glancing back at Evan.

 

“I did? It’s like noon?” Evan says, eyebrow raised. “Are you just getting up now?”

 

“I just woke up, yeah,” Tyler mutters, picking in the dishes. “How’d it go with Brock last night?” he asks, looking at Evan.

 

“It went… okay,” Evan says, shifting uncomfortably on the spot as he speaks. “I mean, he didn’t dump me, which is more than I could hope for, but he’s not exactly pleased either,” he sighs. “But I was expecting that…”

 

Tyler looking at him almost pityingly. “Shit, you sound like you had a rough night then,” he mutters. “All I had to do was promise him I wouldn’t get hurt and he’s fine with it,” he replies, beginning to wonder why Brock didn’t trust Evan the way Craig trusted him.

 

Evan looks up at him surprised. “Really? He wasn’t at all concerned about the grand theft auto?” Evan frowns. “That’s the part Brock got annoyed over. He didn’t care about the kiss that much. He kinda thought it was hilarious actually…”

 

“Well… I kind of didn’t mention what we do, or the  _other_  thing, just the kiss,” Tyler mutters softly.

 

“Ahh… yeah, I didn’t tell Brock about the other thing either…” Evan admits, biting his lip. “That’s only going to be a one time thing anyway. It’s not like us stealing cars, which is going to continue until we can pay off those hospital bills…”

 

Tyler sighs, folding his arms over his chest as he drops the plates in the sink. “Yeah, cause you’re fuckin’ nuts, Evan. If he knew about the thing he’d probably dump you,” Tyler mutters ominously.

 

“And that’s why we’re not telling him,” Evan says sharply, shooting him with a slight glare.

 

“Why are you looking at me like that? I’m not gonna fuckin tell him, not that I ever see him anyway,” Tyler points out.

 

“Just making sure,” Evan mutters, but accepts that their secret is safe for the time being. His gaze drifts to Craig’s room, and he frowns to himself, remembering that Tyler had left that room when he came home. “What were you doing in Craig’s room?” he asks, confused, trying to figure out what they were doing before he walked in. “And where’s Craig?”

 

Tyler groans as Evan bombards him with questions. “He fell asleep on the couch again, I just left him in his room. Do you not trust me or something?” he asks, looking over with one eyebrow raised. “After everything we’ve been through, you should probably start,” he notes.

 

“Of course I trust you,” Evan frowns, offended that Tyler would think otherwise. “Do you think I’d let you help me out if I didn’t?”

 

Tyler looks over. “You left for the fuckin’ night, Evan. Trust me with Craig. What’s the worst thing that could’ve happened?” he asks, one eyebrow raised skeptically.

 

“I do trust you with Craig. You’re like, one of the very few people I do trust to look after him,” Evan tells him, eyeing him suspiciously. “Why are you so defensive today?”

 

Tyler walks into the living room. “I’m on my period, relax,” he sighs, flicking the TV off.

 

Evan rolls his eyes at him, but lets the subject drop, knowing that he’s not going to get a straight answer out of him. “How is Craig anyway?” he asks curiously. “Did he notice we were gone last night?”

 

Tyler’s jaw shifts at this. “Yeah. I accidentally woke him up when I got in. But, uh… he’s fine,” he shrugs, not wanting to explore the topic further as he was sure Craig would hear them.

 

“What did you tell him we were doing?” Evan asks, assuming Craig was asleep and wouldn’t be able to hear their conversation.

 

Tyler leans against the bar, accepting the fact that Evan was going to end up fucking him over on this front. “Nothing special, just errands. I changed the topic and he fell asleep,” he replies, walking over to lean against a wall a few feet away from Craig’s room.

 

Evan nodded, and followed him. “Since he’s asleep, now might be a good time to talk about the Syndicate thing a little more before tonight,” Evan says as he crosses his arms, frowning harshly at the mere mention of his name.

 

Tyler whips around, eyes flashing to Craig’s room. “Okay Evan I’m gonna need you to shut the  _fuck_  up like five minutes ago,” he hisses, anger seeping through his words.

 

Evan eyes him with confusion. “What? Why? Didn’t you say Craig’s asleep? He won’t hear us,” he points out, but still feels a small twinge of panic. “He is asleep, isn’t he?” he asks, lowering his voice.

 

Tyler seems to finally snap, shoulders slumping. “No,” he whispers finally in defeat, leaning against the fridge door.

 

“Then why’d you tell me he was?!” Evan hisses, pissed off that Craig might have overheard something he was never supposed to hear.

 

“Don’t you fucking put this on me, Evan! I did what I had to,” Tyler snaps at him, clenching his fist and walking around him to Craig’s room, hand clenching around the handle till his knuckles turned white.

 

“What the hell are you talking about?!” Evan exclaims, still trying to keep his voice as low as possible now that he knows that Craig is awake and possibly eavesdropping.

 

Tyler points a finger at Evan. “Don’t. Fucking. Come  _any_  closer,” he orders, eyes narrowed at him before he opens the door, face softening. He stares at Craig for a moment, not saying anything. Craig had kicked the rest of his clothes onto the floor and completely buried himself underneath the covers, lying on his side and curling himself into a ball.

 

“You’re hiding something from me,” Evan accuses, and steps forward in spite of Tyler’s warning not to. “Did something happen to Craig?!” he asks, protective older brother mode kicking in.

 

Tyler’s face goes from slightly calm to completely, irrationally furious in about two seconds. “Do not fucking get any closer to this room, Evan, I swear to God I’ll kick your ass!” he snaps, sheer rage seeping in. He glances back at Craig. “Get up,” he murmurs softly, watching him for a moment before turning back to Evan.

 

Craig does as he’s told, pulling the covers off of his head and sitting up, and looks up at Tyler anxiously, worried about the direction this conversation was going.

 

“Tyler, what the hell is going on?” Evan snaps and glares him down, hating that he’d yet to get an honest answer from him.

 

Tyler positions himself perfectly between Evan and the opening in the door, as though protecting one from the other. “I can’t tell you that,” he replies, returning Evan’s glare.

 

“Why not?! What  _the fuck_  did you do to him?!” Evan presses further, shoulders tensing in anger.

 

Biting his lip, Tyler sighs. “I can’t tell you that, either,” he replies, shifting as though ready to stop Evan should he charge at the door.

 

“So you did do something to him?!” Evan asks harshly, hands clenching and unclenching into fists. “All that talk earlier about me not trusting you alone with him, and you  _fucking_  hurt him?!” he hisses.

 

At this, Tyler completely snaps. “Fuck. You, Evan,” he hisses, walking up to him with white knuckles. The closer he gets, the more red hot his rage seems to be.

“ _Tyler, Evan, stop it_ ,” Craig hisses sternly, suddenly appearing at the bedroom door, blankets held and wrapped loosely around his waist so he wouldn’t be completely naked. “Tyler did  _nothing_  to hurt me.”

 

“Then what the hell is going on?!” Evan exclaims again, but then his eyes drift to a growing red mark on Craig’s neck. “What the hell happened to your neck?!” he asks, as Craig’s hand snapped up to cover the hickey.

 

Tyler looks back at this, confusion melting into slight disappointment. “Craig, I’m pretty sure at least forty percent of ‘Get up’ also means 'Get  _dressed_ ’,” he groans, walking over to tilt his head to the side. “Shit,” he curses under his breath, brushing his fingers gently along Craig’s neck.

 

Craig smiles sheepishly at him, but before he could explain himself, Evan pushes in between them, glaring Tyler down. “ _Don’t touch him_ ,” he growls, still not understanding what was going on.

 

Tyler gently rests his hand over the one Evan has on his chest. “ _Evan._  Remember what I kept talking about, while we were… out last night?” he asks hesitantly, eyes searching Evan’s face.

 

“…We talked about a lot of things last night,” Evan says slowly, as he struggled to pinpoint exactly what Tyler was referring to.

 

Tyler removes his hand. “Right after you kissed me,” he pauses for a moment. “That guy I mentioned,” he glances between Evan and Craig, seeming to get worried.

 

The conversation came flooding back, from Tyler mentioning that he was seeing someone right now, someone he was very interested in dating, and his face dropped as it finally clicked in his mind. He was stunned into silence, and stared up at Tyler with a blank expression, as Craig gently laid a hand on Evan’s shoulder and peeked around him anxiously, lightly biting his lip.

 

Tyler watches it click into place in Evan’s mind, and immediately once that happens he starts backing away, still fearful of his reaction. “Evan…” he calls out slowly.

 

Still not saying anything, Evan slowly turned around to face Craig, putting his back to Tyler. He gently grabbed his chin and tilted his head to get a better look at the mark on his neck, and after a moment of thought, he sighs. “Did he bite you?” he asks, sounding exasperated.

 

Craig nods slowly, wary of his reaction, afraid he’d snap at any moment. “Yeah, but I liked it though,” he says, smiling sheepishly at him.

 

Evan sighs deeply again. “I… didn’t need to know that part…” he says, shaking his head, and then examines the rest of him. “You’re completely naked under there, aren’t you?” he asks, and Craig nods hesitantly again.

 

Tyler seems to relax at Evan’s exasperated tone, but only slightly as he still takes another couple steps away from Evan. Once he was satisfied that Craig was okay, Evan turns around to face Tyler again, gaze drifting to his chest. “…And you’re not shirtless because you  _sleep_  shirtless, are you?” he asks.

 

“No,” he replies, gaze never shifting from Evan no matter how much his feet shifted his weight.

 

Evan sighs heavily again, and rubs at his face. “…Why didn’t you tell me?” he asks, sounding a little hurt.

 

“I…” Tyler tries to find the words. “I was worried.” His eyes flicker from Evan to Craig.

 

“About what? How I’d react?” Evan asks, and Craig answers for him with a soft ‘yeah’.

 

“You never like the guys I date so…” Craig explains, still watching him warily.

 

“That’s because you usually seem to attract nothing but assholes,” Evan says, smiling softly at him, as Craig pouts.

 

“Assuming I’m not an asshole?” Tyler hums from a few feet away, one eyebrow raised at Evan.

 

“The jury is still out on that one,” Evan replies, and looks Tyler up and down. “…How long has this been going on for?”

 

Tyler pauses to bite his lip. “Fuck, I dunno. Since that one night you left the hospital and I stayed over,” he replies, as though thinking back on it. “Nearly caught us then,” he mutters, walking back over to Evan.

 

“So… three, four days ago?” Evan asks as he does the math in his head, and then his eyes widen when he realises something. “So when you told me that being alone in a hospital room with Craig had its perks… and all those comments you’ve been making about him…” he says, trailing off at the end.

 

Tyler breaks into a grin, winking at him. “Hell yeah,” he replies, stepping closer to Craig, who looks up and smiles at him fondly as he approached him. Evan watches them for a moment, and notices the dumb lovestruck look in Craig’s eye, and he can’t help but smile to himself.

 

Tyler lets one arm rest on Craig’s shoulders, leaning down to press a gentle kiss against his forehead. “You know he’s safe with me, Evan,” Tyler points out.

“He better be,” Evan says sternly, but his smile never faded.

 

Tyler just rolls his eyes, turning to smother Craig’s neck in kisses. Evan immediately turns away, deciding that he really didn’t need to see that. “That’s… going to take some getting used to,” he admits, shifting uncomfortably at the sight of his best friend kissing his little brother.

 

Tyler just grins, gently biting Craig’s neck. “How about that then?” he mumbles softly against Craig’s neck, smiling into his skin. Tyler pulls away abruptly, cradling Craig’s face in his hands gently.

 

As soon as he hears the surprised groan spill from Craig’s mouth, Evan promptly decides that he’s done with this conversation. “Okay, I’m leaving,” he announces and makes a beeline for the door, already doing everything he possibly can to erase that from his memory. He pauses at the doorway for a moment, shifting on his feet as he tries to think of something else to say, eventually muttering a stern “Don’t hurt him” before leaving, shutting the door behind him.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> NSFW warning; bad things and plenty of them. I tagged the whole fic bc of a few select chapters and this is one of them

The second Evan is gone, Craig shoves Tyler against the wall and kisses him hard, letting the blankets he was holding fall to the ground as he grips onto Tyler’s shoulders and stands on his tip toes to reach him. “Can you  _not_  do shit like that to me in front of Evan?” he mutters against his lips with a slight frown. **  
**

Tyler groans a quiet “Fuck,” against his lips, leaning down to meet him. “Why? Do you like it too much?” he hums into the kiss.

 

“Maybe,” Craig mutters, not willing to admit that that was the  _exact_  reason he didn’t want Tyler to bite him like that in front of anyone. “But he’s gone now so…” he shrugs lightly, smirking to himself. “So I guess you’re free to do whatever you want now~!”

 

“And what if I wanna do you?” Tyler asks, gently tilting Craig’s face up.

 

“Well… I guess you won’t have to worry about Evan walking in on you bending me over that couch any more,” he purrs flirtatiously, hands gently stroking down his biceps.

 

Tyler smiles at this. “Are you saying you wanna do that?” he hums, setting his hands on Craig’s hips and picking him up, slamming him against the wall.

 

Craig squeaks and tightens his grip on him in surprise. “The wall’s good too,” he mutters quietly, and kisses him softly. “I’m not picky.”

 

“Good,” Tyler mumbles against his lips, grinding his hips against Craig’s. Craig kisses him again, hooking his legs around his waist and hands gripping at the back of his neck to pull him closer. Tyler keeps his hands firmly planted on Craig’s hips, gently biting Craig’s lip, causing Craig to let out a soft moan.

 

Tyler suddenly slams his hips against Craig’s, sliding one hand off his hips long enough to pull his sweatpants off. Craig pulls away for a second to whimper, unconsciously pushing his hips against his. “Tyler, we need protection,” Craig gently reminds him, kissing along his jawline.

 

“You like it when I’m rough?” Tyler hums, pausing to think. “Do you have any?”

 

“You didn’t figure that out after you bit me?” Craig mumbles in response, as he kisses from his jaw down to his neck. “Top drawer, beside my bed.”

 

Tyler shifts, pulling Craig close to him and carrying him into his room, letting his grip loose enough that Craig shifts and grinds against his hips with every step. “I mean yeah, just not that rough,” he replies.

 

Craig whines and whimpers at even the slightest bit of friction as Tyler carries him, voice slightly muffled as he buries his face into his neck, arms wrapped tightly around him. “Fuck, that’s so sexy,” Tyler mumbles under his breath, evident by his growing erection. He pauses long enough to dig through Craig’s drawer, pulling out a condom.

 

“And lube, I don’t like it  _that_  rough,” Craig mutters against his skin. Tyler hums, pulling out a bottle of lube. He doesn’t adjust his grip on Craig, instead walking halfway across the apartment to the couch and making the friction worse as he did so, stopping in the living room. Craig lifts his head and slams his lips against Tyler’s as he’s carried, fingertips pressing hard into his skin.

 

Tyler groans softly against his lips, collapsing on the couch and letting Craig straddle him. Craig adjusts his position and settles onto his lap, and presses his body flush against his. Tyler sets one hand on his hips long enough to lift him up and pull his boxers off, gently biting Craig’s neck. Craig inhales sharply as his teeth sink into his skin, and he squirms on his lap, softly whimpering out Tyler’s name.

 

Tyler suddenly pins his back against the couch, pulling the condom on. He opens the lube, coating a few fingers and slipping one into Craig. Craig moans, unconsciously bucking his hips upwards, hands tightly gripping at Tyler’s shoulders. Tyler shifts, biting Craig’s neck and letting his teeth sink into his skin, slowly sliding another finger in. “Tyler, fuck,” Craig groans as his eyes flutter shut and he throws his head back.

 

He lets his tongue flick over the skin trapped in his teeth, fingers working their magic. Craig hums and moans as Tyler’s fingers work inside of him, waves of pleasure shooting through him. “ _Tyler_ ,” he gasps. “ _Tyler fuck me._ ”

 

Tyler goes to say something but elects not to, as he’s sure Craig by now can get one of maybe five words out. He pulls his fingers out, grabbing Craig’s hips and roughly thrusting into him. Craig’s long moan slowly morphs into a whimper, as his back arches up off the couch, fingers digging into Tyler’s skin. Tyler gives him a few seconds to relax and as soon as he does so, slams into him again, keeping his rough pace. Craig moans and whimpers at every thrust, chanting Tyler’s name under his breath over and over again, as if it was the only word he knew.

 

Tyler suddenly leaned in, roughly biting Craig’s neck and letting one hand gently stroke his dick. “ _Oh God_ ,” Craig groans, bucking his hips up into Tyler’s hand, so overcome with and lost in his bliss that the world could end around him and he would never notice. Tyler gently tugs on the skin trapped between his teeth, grip firmer as he strokes Craig and slams into him. Craig whimpers and whines and squirms at every little touch, orgasm slowly building and building with every passing second.

 

Tyler hums against his neck, licking a stripe up his neck as his thrusts become rougher and more erratic. A combination of Tyler licking at a particularly sensitive soft spot on his neck and fucking him and jacking him off all at the same time was enough to finally send him over the edge, his back arching up again as he cums, his loudest moan yet filling the dead air in the room.

 

The second he hears Craig moaning, Tyler is pushed off the edge and buries his face in Craig’s neck as he cums which doesn’t at all muffle his loud moan of Craig’s name. Craig wraps his arms around Tyler’s neck as they ride out their orgasms together, pulling him closer as he slowly drifts back down to earth. Tyler doesn’t say anything for a long time, chest heaving as he nuzzles into Craig’s neck.

 

Craig almost blurts out that he loves him,  _almost_ , but just manages to bite back the words in time. Instead, he merely hums in satisfaction as he relaxes and melts into the couch. “Babe,” Tyler hums suddenly, not bothering to look up at him.

 

“Hmm?” Craig hums, turning his head slightly so he could lay a gentle kiss on his forehead.

 

“How much did you hear, of me and Evan talking?” he asks quietly, clearly more worried than he was letting on.

 

“Oh uh… not a lot? I couldn’t really make out what you were saying when you went to the kitchen,” Craig frowns as he tries to remember what he did hear. “You were talking about a syndicate or something…?”

 

Tyler immediately tenses up, glad he cut Evan off when he did. “Alright,” he mumbles simply, saying nothing more on the topic.

 

“Why? Does that have to do with the thing that you refuse to tell me about?” Craig asks, barely managing to suppress his bitterness.

 

“Yeah,” Tyler replies with a twinge of sadness, hating how much he had to conceal. He falls silent, mind drifting to the potential dangers of tonight’s escapade. He wraps an arm tightly around Craig.

 

“Oh… Well… I’m not sure I want to know then,” Craig frowns, staring up at the ceiling in thought. Tyler hums silently, getting up and leaving the room only to come back with his pants on, cuddling up next to Craig and turning the TV on. “How come you get clothes and I don’t?” Craig frowns again.

 

“Cause if Evan comes in I’m pretty sure he’ll be a lot more okay with you being naked. He’d probably beat me,” Tyler mumbles softly, shifting and effectively pinning Craig to the couch.

 

“He’ll beat you anyway if you’re next to me while I’m butt naked, whether you’re wearing clothes or not,” Craig points out, too tired to care that he was being pinned again. “Plus he’ll probably throw a fit when he sees what you did to my neck.”

 

“Let him,” Tyler replies calmly. “That was fucking amazing,” he nuzzles into Craig’s neck, pressing a gentle kiss to it.

 

“It was pretty great,” Craig concedes, smiling to himself. “Even if I can’t go out in public without a scarf any more…”

 

Tyler rolls his eyes. “Yeah, I don’t hear you complaining,” he points out, shifting so that Craig could get up if he so desired.

 

“I liked it at the time, but fucking hell Tyler, I’m going to be fucking  _purple_  in a few hours,” Craig pouts and doesn’t budge from his position, much too comfortable to move. Tyler hums happily, shifting in his spot and saying nothing more on the subject.

 

Craig’s attention drifts to the TV and he’s content to watch it for a few moments, until another thought strikes him, and he glances at Tyler again. “How’d your blind date go last night?” he asks curiously. “I’m guessing you didn’t fall in love with him or something considering everything you just did to me, but still, how’d it go?”

 

Immediately upon remembering Brian, Tyler buries his face in Craig’s neck and groans loudly. “Oh my fucking God, I wanted to kill Brock,” he complains. “That dude was fucking awful.”

 

“Was he?” Craig grins, amused, and a little relieved that it went terribly for very selfish reasons.

 

“Fuck, he was so dumb,” Tyler whines. “He wouldn’t shut up, just went on and on,” he mutters.

 

“Sounds like you had a great time then,” Craig chimes, and nuzzles his face into Tyler’s hair. “I’m jealous~!” he teases.

 

“You fuckin’ date him then,” Tyler returns, glaring up at Craig.

 

“Maybe I will,” Craig shrugs, still grinning widely at him. “Is he cute? Because I’m in the market for a cute guy.“

 

Tyler frowns at this. "Yeah, he’s hot at first but then he opens his mouth,” Tyler replies, sitting up and shifting away from Craig’s touch.

 

“There are ways of shutting people up,” Craig says, curious as to how far he could push this before Tyler starts getting jealous.

 

Tyler glares at him. “It worked on you for like an hour,” he mutters softly, obviously very pissed off.

 

“You didn’t think about trying that tactic with him?” Craig asks teasingly, unsure why he asked that and what he hoped to gain from asking that.

 

Tyler raises an eyebrow. “I can, if you want me to that bad,” he mutters, reaching for his phone and scrolling down to Brock’s contact.

 

“…I thought you didn’t like him?” Craig frowns, eyes fixed on the phone in his hands, curious as to what he was doing.

 

“I don’t like him when he talks. But, according to you, that can be fixed,” he points out, clicking on Brock’s contact and hovering over the call button before eventually hitting it.

 

“But you don’t-…” Craig begins, and then immediately cuts himself off, realising his plan had backfired tremendously. He can’t assume that Tyler wouldn’t want a relationship with this guy that was just making out and sex, especially considering that’s all that  _their_  relationship was, even if he did feel differently, and instead, he falls silent.

 

“Hello?” Brock’s voice crackles through the receiver.

 

Tyler puts the phone up to his ear, walking out of the room. “Hey, Brock,” he pauses for just a moment. “Do you still have, um, Brian’s number?” he asks.

 

“Oh! Uh… yeah, I do…” he replies, a little confused. “Evan told me you didn’t like him though… and honestly, I’m not sure Brian liked you that much either…”

 

Tyler glances back, finding that Craig was far enough away. “Good. I didn’t. Craig picks the worst topics to talk about post-sex,” he mutters as he grabs something from the kitchen to drink.

 

Brock stutters on the other end, not expecting Tyler to tell him that and was obviously a little flustered. “I… I really didn’t need to know that part…” he chuckles nervously. “Why are you… why are you telling me this…?”

 

“I called you out of spite, and maybe a little bit to scare him into thinking I would actually date Brian,” Tyler replies, and once his amused bravado fades it’s clear that he’s somewhat nervous about something, evident by his shaky tone and the sound of a beer bottle opening on the other end.

 

Brock was about to comment on their strange relationship, but there was something about his voice that worried him. “…Are you okay?” he asks, concerned.

 

“No,” Tyler replies without hesitation, explaining after a moment of silence. “I’m really, really fucking worried about tonight with Evan,” he replies quietly. “I have this sinking feeling that something will go wrong,” he rubs his face.

 

“…Why do you think that that?” Brock asks softly, the worry he had for his boyfriend’s safety creeping into his tone.

 

Tyler groans loudly. “I can’t tell you,” he replies, as though he’s sick of saying it. “Just… ” he shakes his head, making the decision on his own to not let Evan shoot the mugger.

 

“…Y’know, I’m getting real sick of you two keeping secrets from me,” Brock says, in a stern tone that was unusual for him.

 

“I know, Brock, I’m sick of lying to Craig. But this is serious, and I mean serious. Like, you’d get in trouble just knowing about it, if we got caught,” he replies, sipping his beer and keeping a watchful eye on Craig in the living room.

 

Craig pays little to no attention to Tyler in the kitchen, and seems to be avoiding looking at him altogether. After a moment or two, he stands up on jelly legs and hobbles off to his bedroom, gaze cast downward, somewhat resembling a kicked puppy.

 

“Like… worse than the car thing?” Brock asks hesitantly, afraid of the answer.

 

“I won’t let Evan do it. He can’t take the fall for that kind of thing,” Tyler replies, eyes locked on Craig in concern and hurt.

 

“For what kind of thing? What are you two doing?” Brock presses him further, beginning to panic.

 

“Brock. Let me take the fall. Don’t worry. Evan will come home, I promise,” he replies, slowly making his way toward Craig’s room.

 

“What about you though?” Brock frowns. “Maybe you just shouldn’t do whatever you’re planning. This isn’t necessary, especially if it’s going to have terrible consequences…”

 

Tyler rests his hand on the doorknob. “Take care of Craig for me,” is all he says before he hangs up the phone and walks into Craig’s room.


	12. Chapter 12

Craig is in the middle of getting dressed when Tyler walks in on him. “Did you get his number then?” he asks, trying to smile convincingly at him as he zips and buttons up his pants.

 

Tyler had barely hung up the phone for thirty seconds before Brock rings him back. “No. Brock says he doesn’t even like me,” he replies, pulling his phone out and ignoring the call before putting it away again.

 

“Oh… well, you know what they say, there’s other fish in the sea!” Craig says in as chipper of a tone as he could manage, turning his back to him as he picks up a shirt off the ground. “Maybe Brock could set you up with another one of his friends, one you might actually like this time.”

 

“Craig, stop it,” he walks over, pulling Craig into a hug. “I only called Brock to spite you, to make you jealous like you did to me and it worked too well,” he mumbles, eyes drifting to his purple neck.

 

“That… that’s fair,” Craig mumbles, and hesitantly hugs him back, but there was clearly something else on his mind.

 

“What?” Tyler asks softly, ignoring the buzzing in his pocket of a  _very_  worried Brock.

 

Craig pauses for a moment as he silently tries to figure out how to approach the subject, and he takes a deep shaky breath. “Tyler… what are we?” he asks in a voice so soft and quiet that Tyler almost didn’t hear him.

 

Tyler takes a moment to process the question, swallowing hard, then speaks up albeit rather hesitantly. “You’re my boyfriend.”

 

Craig’s heart stops. “…Boyfriend?” he repeats softly, liking the way that word rolls off his tongue. “As in, boyfriends that- that genuinely like each other and don’t date other people or joke about dating other people because of how much of a terrible idea that is why the fuck did we do that, type boyfriends?”

 

Tyler smiles fondly. “Yeah,” he replies, gently kissing Craig’s forehead.

 

Craig’s entire body seems to relax with relief, and he clings to Tyler much tighter than what he was holding onto him before. “Okay, okay good,” he mutters, burying his face into his shoulder. “That’s what I was hoping you’d say.”

 

“Good,” he murmurs, shifting his phone away from Craig so he couldn’t know, as though Brock would tell him about this conversation from earlier.

 

“So…” Craig begins, smiling to himself. “Does this mean you’re going to take me on a date some time then?” he asks boldly, nudging him gently.

 

Tyler smiles at him. “Of course,” he replies.

 

“Good, because I’d really like that,” he says honestly, smiling up at him, and then adding a little more sheepishly “I’m sorry for trying to make you jealous. That was a dick move on my part…”

 

“It’s okay,” Tyler soothes. He presses a gentle kiss to Craig’s forehead.

 

“I just… I just wanted reassurance that you actually liked me and that I wasn’t just some fuckbuddy to you, and that was the wrong way to go about it…” Craig continues, frowning to himself. “I should’ve just asked you to begin with.”

 

Tyler collapses onto the bed, tugging Craig over to the bed. “Come here,” he calls, voice soft and lazy. Craig allows Tyler to tug him across the room and he lies down next to him when asked, cuddling into his side. Tyler immediately curls up as close to Craig as he can get, still not ready for the night ahead of him.

 

* * *

 

“ _Tyler_!” Evan calls out sharply the second he steps through the front door of his and Craig’s apartment and slams it behind him, not bothering to look around to see if Tyler was even there, already knowing full well that Tyler had yet to leave.

 

Tyler’s eyes flash open and he immediately knows he’s screwed, shifting out of bed and trying not to wake Craig as he walked out to meet his inevitable doom, not realising that Craig had begun to stir. He slowly steps out of Craig’s room, grateful that he’d put on pants earlier. “Hey, Evan,” he quietly greets him.

 

“Tyler!” Evan hisses again the second he lays eyes on him. “What the fuck?! You promised me this morning that you wouldn’t tell Brock anything, and then you fucking went and told him shit!” he seethes, glaring him down.

 

Tyler represses the urge to roll his eyes, sure that it would only further piss him off. “I told him vague shit, Evan, all of which is true. I’m not letting you do something like that, especially not something with the potential to bite us in the ass,” he retorts. “Craig needs you, you’re all he has left,” his voice softens at the mention of Craig.

 

“That’s… that’s not true, Tyler, not any more. He has you too now, remember?” Evan points out with a frown, some of his anger fading, but he was obviously still very tense. “But that’s not the point. The point is; you told Brock shit you weren’t supposed to tell him, even if you were vague about it, and now he’s worried sick about you… and to be honest, I am too. What the fuck did you mean that you are ‘going to take the fall for me’?”

 

Tyler walks over to him, softening at his words. “Whatever we end up doing to this kid will come back to haunt us, Ev. If we get caught, by cops or by like another guy… he can replace a boyfriend,” Tyler points out. “He can’t replace a brother, and you have Brock,” he rests one hand on Evan’s shoulder.

 

Evan knows he has a point, but he refuses to admit it. “Still… I’m the one that dragged you into this mess, and I can’t let you deal with any sort of repercussion on your own…” he frowns.

 

Tyler pulls him into a hug. “Ev. You have people here that need you. That can’t replace you. Somebody has to protect you for once,” he replies.

 

“Brock can replace me. I mean, you said it yourself, boyfriends can be replaced,” Evan points out in a soft voice, heart panging at the mere thought, and he knows his argument is weak, but that didn’t stop him for making it anyway.

 

“Stop it. I’m not letting you do this, Evan,” Tyler replies firmly, suggesting that his mind was set.

 

Evan looks up at him concerned. “…You better not be suggesting that you’re planning on doing this  _alone_ , are you?” he asks sternly.

 

“I’m not letting you hurt Syndicate. Just let me protect you, for once,” Tyler implores, setting a gentle kiss on Evan’s forehead before walking over to set his phone in the kitchen.

 

“…Do you know how  _long_  I’ve been wanting to hurt him though?” Evan asks as he follows him, his tone scarily dark.

 

“This will come back to bite us in the ass, Evan, and you know it!” Tyler glares at him. “I’m not letting you fall into a spiral of shame and guilt because of whatever happens tonight,” he retorts.

 

“But I have to let you?” Evan frowns. “That doesn’t seem fair.”

 

“Yes, you have to and you’re going to,” Tyler firmly glares at him. “I’m not…” he pauses, shifting in the middle of walking to Craig’s room. “I’m not letting you kill this guy, because you’ll beat yourself up over it. Whatever happens to him is my fault, and you’re gonna have to let that happen,” he tells Evan firmly, walking into Craig’s room.

 

Evan was far too stubborn to let Tyler take the fall on his own, and knew Tyler was too stubborn to relent, so he shrugs and says cryptically “We’ll see what happens,” before disappearing into his own bedroom to fetch his gym bag.

 

Tyler just rolls his eyes, gently kissing Craig’s head. “I love you so much,” he murmurs just like he always does, voice soft and wavering slightly out of fear of what was to come. He sets one hand on Craig’s cheek and watches him for a moment before getting up and walking out of the room.

 

Evan leaves his room just as Tyler leaves Craig’s, and he meets him halfway. “We’ll have to arm ourselves here for once. Can’t drag Lui and Nogla into this bullshit by going to their place like usual,” he mutters, opening the bag and pulling out their pistols.

 

Tyler takes his pistol, leaning against the wall as he starts checking it. “God, I’m so worried,” he murmurs quietly, never taking his eyes off his gun.

 

Evan sighs. “Me too, but this has to be done. We can’t let that bastard get away with what he did,” he says firmly, concealing his gun on his person, and then pauses. “…Do we take our masks?”

 

“Ah, who cares? What’s the worst one guy can do?” he mutters, putting his pistol away. “Craig’s gonna be fuckin’ pissed that I lied to him about what we’re doing,” he mutters softly.

 

“He’ll be pissed at me too so you’re not alone there,” Evan sighs, heading back to his bedroom to toss the bag back inside. “But he  _can’t_  find out about this. It’s bad enough that I had to tell Brock, we can’t tell Craig too… I don’t want them getting dragged into this…”

 

“I know. I haven’t told him anything,” Tyler replies, glancing back at his door. “Hate breaking a promise to him,” he sighs.

 

“Promise? What promise?” Evan frowns as he heads back to the kitchen to write his usual note.

 

“I promised him I’d always come home,” he replies, biting his lip.

 

Evan stops writing mid sentence to look up at him. “Tyler, you’re going to come home,” Evan says firmly, before glancing back down at the sticky note. “I’m going to make sure of it.”

 

Tyler doesn’t answer, wanting to keep Evan’s mental state as much as he can. He follows him quietly, stopping in the kitchen and making sure he hadn’t forgotten anything.

 

Once he had finished scribbling down his note, Evan dropped the pen and stood up straight, patting himself down to make sure he had everything he could possibly need. “Ready?”

 

“No, but we can go anyway,” Tyler replies, walking toward the door and opening it for Evan. “Fuck, I have a bad feeling about this,” he mutters under his breath.

“You’re just nervous. We’ll be fine, Tyler,” Evan tells him, even if he doesn’t entirely believe it himself, and leads the way out of the apartment building.

 

“Who’re you trying to convince?” Tyler mumbles, sticking close to his side.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> NSFW Warning

“You,” Evan says simply, pausing for a moment before they left the building to make sure there was no one around that would see them, before waving for Tyler to follow him in the direction that he knew the alley they were looking for was in.

 

Tyler sticks closer to him once they enter the alley, seeming comforted when their shoulders brush, as though he’s scared of something happening to Evan under his watch. Evan carefully looks around them, trying to spot that mop of purple hair that had long since burned itself into his memory. “Well… this is it…” Evan says with a frown, not sure what they were supposed to do now.

 

With a pause, Tyler steps away from Evan long enough to call out. “Let me pay for it, Evan. It’ll be expensive,” in a rather loud voice.

 

Evan shoots him an indignant look at the way louder than necessary voice he uses, but plays along regardless. “I can’t let you spend that much money on me, even if you do have an absurd amount of cash on your person right now.”

 

Tyler opens his mouth to snap at Evan for being too blunt, but before he can get a chance to a purple blur shoots out of nowhere and slams Evan against the wall. “You again, pretty boy?” Syndicate asks, flashing a wide grin.

 

Evan clenches his jaw and glares down at him, but not before glancing at Tyler out of the corner of his eye in a silent gesture to let him know that  _this_  was the guy they were looking for. “Do you want to fucking let go of me?” he growls, hand reaching towards where his pistol was hidden, but doesn’t pull it out just yet.

 

Tyler takes about half a second to lose his shit, stepping closer and setting a firm hand on Syndicate’s shoulder. “Don’t  _fucking_  touch him,” Tyler snaps in a voice fierce enough to scare Evan.

 

“So vicious,” Syndicate hums. “You really need to relax. I think I know just what’ll help,” he lets go of Evan, turning and pressing his lips against Tyler’s long enough for Tyler to pull his gun out and shoot him in the shoulder.

 

The gunshot echoes through the dead of night, and there’s no way someone somewhere didn’t hear it, and it was only a matter of time before the police showed up. Even though Evan was a little shocked at what Tyler had done, he still had to act fast if they wanted to finish with him before the cops arrived, and he catches the mugger before he falls to the ground. “Did you honestly think that you could get away with pulling this type of shit?” he snarls, glaring down at him.

 

Syndicate chuckles. “Sure is fun having you all over me,” he points out. “Bit obsessed there, mate,” he grins. Tyler keeps his pistol trained on Syndicate, who grins brightly at his fury. “Wouldn’t do that,” he calls to Tyler, who doesn’t flinch.

 

A distant giggle from behind Tyler has him clenching tighter onto his gun. “What the fuck was that?” he hisses, glancing behind him.

 

Evan tenses now that he realises they’re not alone, and keeps a firm grip on Syndicate, pulling out his own pistol with one hand so he could defend himself or hold him as a hostage if need be. “Who’s there…?” he calls out hesitantly.

 

The distant giggling quickly grows manic as a man steps out from behind Tyler, seemingly half his size. “Me!” The man’s grin takes up half his face. He whips out a revolver, letting the barrel rest on the side of Tyler’s head. “You’re gonna have to back off,” he says, smile never once fading.

 

“You too,” Evan says, and prods the barrel of his pistol into the small of Syndicate’s back, suddenly wishing he had wore his mask after all, eyes darting all over the alley as he tried to figure out an escape route that would get both him and Tyler out safely.

 

The grinning man pulls the trigger, laughing when Tyler doesn’t flinch at the empty clicking. “Be a shame if I had the other barrels loaded,” he remarks, looking over at the dead look in Tyler’s eyes.

 

“Pull it,” he growls out at the man, who giggles relentlessly.

 

“If you insist~!”

 

Evan shoots Tyler a concerned look, but is quick to steel himself again as he looks at the new assailant up and down, silently trying to figure out if shooting him would help Tyler, or only cause him to pull the trigger of his revolver.

 

“Fucking  _shoot him_ , Nanners!” Syndicate snaps after a tense moment, and Nanners rolls his eyes. He takes a moment, lowering his gun and shooting Tyler in the side.

 

“Fuck!” Tyler immediately kneels to the ground, one hand clamped tightly on his stomach. Once he’s shot Tyler, Nanners turns his gun on Evan. “Let him go,” he says with a terrifyingly happy voice.

 

Panic rises in Evan’s chest the second he hears the gunshot, and he eyes him worryingly for a moment before he glares harshly at Nanners, suddenly realising that he now had two people to avenge. His judgement was clouded by sheer anger, and without thinking of how much of a terrible idea it was, Evan pulls the trigger and shoots Syndicate in the back before dropping him. “There. I let him go,” he snarks, and points the gun at Nanners.

 

Nanners giggles and steps forward, helping Syndicate up and pretty much carrying him. “Be seein’ ya, Evan,” Syndicate grins out before they leave.

 

Tyler watches him in silence, coughing weakly. “Go. I’ll get Brock to come get me,” he tells Evan, eyes never leaving the anger in his face.

 

Evan considers taking Tyler’s advice for a second, biting hard on his bottom lip as he lines up his pistol with the back of Nanners’ head, but for one reason or another, changes his mind. “No,” is all he says as he reluctantly puts his pistol away in favour of shrugging off his jacket and applying it to Tyler’s wound.

 

Tyler presses it to his wound. “We can’t go home,” is all he says. “Craig,” he mumbles, doubling over in pain.

 

“Tyler. You need a fucking  _doctor_ ,” Evan frowns, and gently wraps an arm around him to help him stand, and then swears under his breath when he realises that they can’t go to a hospital after what happened out of fear of getting arrested. “We can’t go to a doctor, can we?” he thinks aloud.

 

“We go to Brock’s, you take it out. No hospitals. No one tells Craig, and I avoid him for a few days until I take the bandages off,” he replies simply, leaning heavily on Evan.

 

“It takes more than a few days for a bullet wound to heal. He’s going to notice,” Evan points out, but does as he’s told and starts leading him towards Brock’s as quickly as they could manage in their current state, slightly worried that the police would appear any minute. “Besides, he’s going to know something is up considering you just spent the past few days never leaving his side and now you’re trying to avoid him…”

 

“Tell him I died, I don’t give a shit, he can’t find out I got shot. That’ll make it worse,” Tyler replies, voice dwindling and getting weak. “I don’t care what you tell him, he can’t find out something happened,” he looks over at Evan.

 

Evan doesn’t even know where to begin in pointing out all of the things he got very wrong in those few sentenced. “Tyler-… I’m not telling him you died. That’s  _worse_  than telling him the truth. We need a much better lie than that,” he frowns. “Or even just tell him the truth…”

 

“You have no idea how pissed he was. Tell him I’m at home,” Tyler replies, leaning more heavily on Evan. “I’ll go home as long as you do. He’ll make me keep my shirt on if you’re home,” Tyler mutters, hand around his stomach loosening weakly.

 

Evan sighs. “Let’s worry about Craig later. Right now, I need to get you to Brock’s before you pass out on me, because you are far too heavy for me to carry on my own, and I need you to put your full concentration into staying conscious. We’ll figure out what we’ll tell Craig when you’re all stitched up, okay?” he says, eyeing him worryingly.

 

Tyler smiles faintly. “I always worry about Craig,” he mutters softly. “Fuck, this hurts,” he hisses.

 

“Gunshots tend to,” Evan smiles softly at him, only to frown when he noticed the blood seeping through his clothes. “But we’re almost there, so hang on a little longer,” he assures him, focusing back onto the building at the end of the street that they were limping towards.

 

“At least it wasn’t you,” he mumbles quietly, almost to himself. “Your fat ass is heavier,” he mocks.

 

Evan shoots him an indignant look, before chuckling to himself and shaking his head. “I’m glad to hear that your sense of humour is still in tact,” he says, smiling softly. “It’d be a shame if we lost that.”

 

Tyler hums, focusing more on walking at this point. “Is it… moving?” he mumbles, staring at the sidewalk.

 

“Everything is moving because we’re moving,” Evan points out to him, and hurries their pace up a little, suddenly very worried that Tyler was about to pass out. He could see the door to the apartment building, they were so close, he couldn’t faint on him now.

 

“Sure,” he mutters, clutching at Evan. “I love you,” he mumbles sweetly, clearly growing delirious from blood loss.

 

“Yeah I love you too, man,” Evan responds absently as they finally reach the door, and he carefully leans Tyler against the wall for a second while he fishes for the key Brock had given him months ago and unlocks the door. “Come on, let’s get you upstairs,” he says softly, as he supports him again.

 

“Where’s Brock?” he hums as he glances around, frowning. “Don’t think I can make it. Leave him here,” he replies.

 

“Leave who where?” Evan asks as he ushers him into the elevator and presses the button for Brock’s floor. “And Brock is in his apartment. We’ll see him in a few minutes.”

 

“Evan, I’m tired,” he whines quietly. “Can’t I just sleep for a little bit?” Tyler groans, leaning against the wall.

 

“No. No sleeping,” Evan says sternly, impatiently watching the number of floors change as they slowly ascend. “I want you to stay awake, and I think Craig would too if he were here. You’ll stay awake for Craig, won’t you?” he asks, hoping to maybe exploit a possible weakness.

 

Tyler sighs. “Fuck you,” he grumbles, rubbing his face. “If he was here he’d be nicer,” he complains.

 

“Maybe, but he isn’t here right now, and if you ever want to see him again, then you’ll do what I tell you, alright?” Evan says as the elevator dings onto their floor and he carefully ushers Tyler out of it, his words sounding unintentionally threatening. “I’m trying to help you, and if you don’t let me and Brock help you, then you might fall asleep and never wake up, and you won’t see him again, and you don’t want that.”

 

His shoulders slump. “You coulda just shot me yourself and made this much easier,” he mutters, leaning against the wall.

 

“And then I’d have to shoot myself for murdering my best friend,” Evan mutters as he tries to drag Tyler a little further down the hall until they finally reach Brock’s apartment. He pulls out his key and unlocks the door, pushing it open.

 

Tyler follows him. “Yeah, it would’ve hurt less from a distance, he shot me point blank you ass,” he hisses.

 

“I know, I was there,” Evan says dismissively, and it’s clear that he wasn’t fully paying attention to what Tyler was saying. “BROCK!” he calls into the other room as he ushers Tyler to the couch and encourages him to lie down.

 

“I’m gonna sleep,” Tyler mutters softly, shifting on the couch.

 

“No, you’re not. You’re going to stay awake and keep us company,” Evan says, kneeling down onto the floor next to him, and urgently calls for Brock again.

 

This time Brock appears at his bedroom door, tired and concerned for what Evan wanted, his heart stopping and his jaw dropping at the sight of Tyler bleeding on his furniture. “W-What-”


	14. Chapter 14

“Get the first aid kit,” Evan cuts him off, pressing his jacket against Tyler’s wound, as Brock runs to the kitchen. “Everything will be okay, Tyler,” he reassures him softly, lightly taking his hand and giving it a small squeeze.

 

“I don’t wanna keep you company, you’re boring,” he groans softly. Tyler lets his hand weakly tighten around Evan’s, but his grip is concerningly loose as he does so. He watches Brock go in silence, then looks back at Evan. “I can’t believe that psychotic dick actually shot me,” he chuckles, then winces in pain and wraps one arm tighter around his stomach.

 

Evan’s shoulders sink as he glances away, a twinge of guilt panging in his chest. “I should have shot him first,” he mutters to himself with a frown. “Then maybe you’d be okay…”

 

“Stop,” Tyler rasps, reaching out to him and deciding against it. “I fucking told you this would happen,” he points out.

 

“You did,” Evan sighs deeply. “And I should have listened to you and I should’ve stopped this from happening…” he says as Brock returns with the first aid, and let go of Tyler’s hand to take it from him.

 

Tyler watches him, oddly quiet for once as he examines Brock more so than what Evan’s about to do to him. “Hey, bud,” he greets him softly.

 

“Hey,” Brock greets back, lightly biting his lip as he watches Evan peel his jacket off of Tyler’s wound, stomach churning when he realises it was a bullet wound. “W-What the hell happened?!” he asks, worried, but Evan doesn’t answer him.

 

“We should probably clean this first,” he mutters instead, picking himself up off the ground to get some water and a sponge.

 

Tyler shifts his hands, giving more room for Evan to work. “I told you I’d protect Evan,” Tyler mumbles, keeping his eyes on Brock. “Focus on my face. Brock, don’t look at it,” he calls softly.

 

“And I told you not to do something that would get you hurt,” Brock says softly, staring down at his wound in spite of Tyler telling him not to.

 

Evan returns with a large bowl of warm water and sits back down on the floor next to Tyler. He takes the sponge and dips into the bowl, rinsing out the excess water before lightly dabbing at the wound, careful not to hurt him.

 

“Don’t sit on the couch at home, Ev,” Tyler mumbles vaguely, eyes drifting over to him.

 

“Why?” Evan asks curiously as he wipes away as much blood as he can, frowning at how much blood there actually was.

 

Tyler breaks into a smile, glancing briefly at Brock. “Oh, you don’t wanna know,” he mutters.

 

Evan sighs. “What did you do?”

 

His grin takes up half his face as he looks at Evan. “Craig. Hard,” he replies, clearly having been anticipating this.

 

Evan tenses up and shoots him an indignant look. “You have been really trying my patience lately,” he mutters as Brock chuckles lightly off to the side, and then sighs. “I’m going to have to burn that couch now…”

 

“Keep promises like that, I’ll fuck him in your room,” Tyler returns, shooting him a playful glare. “And I get to try your patience, dickface, I took a bullet for your impatient ass,” he retorts.

 

“You shouldn’t have had to take a bullet at all,” Evan mutters quietly again, dropping the sponge into the bowl and opening the first aid kit. “Brock, you might have to hold him down. I need to take the bullet out and it’s probably going to hurt,” he comments, eyeing Tyler out of the corner of his eye as he pulls out a pair of tweezers.

 

Tyler doesn’t say anything, watching Evan with the slightest twinge of worry. “If I wanted your boyfriend on top of me I would’ve asked, Evan,” he retorts.

 

“Shut the fuck up Tyler,” Evan says, chuckling a little as Brock pins down Tyler’s legs to stop him from accidentally kicking Evan as he works. “This is going to sting a little,” he warns, before digging the tweezers into his wound as gently as he could possibly manage.

 

He immediately tenses, biting his lip at the sudden pain. “A little?!” Tyler hisses at him.

 

“In hindsight, we probably could’ve given him painkillers first,” Brock points out, smiling sheepishly down at Tyler as that thought occurs to him, and Evan smirks ever so slightly.

 

“He’ll be fine. This is what he gets for fucking my little brother on our couch,” Evan says, only half joking.

 

“You’re so gonna regret this you ass,” Tyler growls, shooting him a glare. “You better keep your door locked,” he taunts.

 

“I don’t think you’ll be moving too much for a while after this, so I think I’m safe,” Evan says as he finally plucks the bullet out of the wound and drops it into the bowl of water, not sure what else to do with it.

 

Once it’s out, Tyler seems to calm down, sinking into the couch and closing his eyes, and Evan lightly thumps his shoulder. “No sleeping, not yet,” he scolds him, before looking up at Brock. “You can sew, right?”

 

It takes about half a second before Brock figures out what he’s asking. “Not people!” he exclaims, looking at the wound nervously. “I don’t know how to stitch someone up, Ev…”  
  


“Well, someone needs to and I’ve never sewn anything before in my life,” Evan comments with a frown.

 

Tyler groans softly when Evan hits him, barely cracking one eye open for a moment and closing it soon after. “You don’t need me, Brock can handle this,” he mutters almost to himself, voice fading weakly.

 

“Yes I do. I need you to stay awake to-… just humour me, Tyler,” Evan sighs as he and Brock switch places, afraid that if Tyler fell asleep, then he would never wake up.

 

“Brock’s pretty funny,” he mutters, voice slowly growing softer.

 

“Tyler, I’m serious,” Evan says sternly. “I need you to stay awake long enough for us to stitch you up, and give you some painkillers, and  _then_  you can sleep.” After a moment of thought, Evan gets up and heads to the bathroom as Brock is threading a needle, and returns a few moments later with pills and a glass of water. “Here,” he says softly as he hands them to Tyler.

 

He opens his eyes when Evan speaks, but clearly staying awake alone is becoming something of a strain for him as he takes the pills and water, offering the glass back once he’s washed down the pills.

 

“Ready?” Brock asks softly as he lightly places his hand on Tyler’s hip, needle and thread in the other.

 

“As ever, princess,” he mutters tiredly, clearly half asleep already.

 

Brock nods and takes a deep breath to calm his nerves, before carefully poking the needle into his skin, and tugging the thread through. The feeling of Brock stabbing him with a needle is enough to get Tyler to open his eyes, glancing between him and Evan. “You’ll be okay,” Evan says softly and pats his leg, as he watches Brock slowly and carefully stitch the wound shut. Tyler hums softly, letting his eyes close again.

 

Evan doesn’t chastise him this time, and just sighs heavily as he watches Brock, and the room falls into silence. It takes a little while for Brock to finish stitching him up, and once he was done, he allows himself to relax. “There. Good as new,” he comments with a sheepish smile and lightly squeezes Tyler’s shoulder.

 

Tyler’s chest moves slightly every few seconds, a slight indicator that he’s still alive, but completely unconscious. Brock begins to tidy up the first aid kit, putting the thread away, and taking everything else back into the kitchen, while Evan doesn’t move, and merely stays where he is, staring down at Tyler with a heavy heart.

 

“He’ll be okay, Evan,” Brock says when comes back, and wraps his arms around his shoulders, pecking him on the temple.

 

“I hope so, Brock,” Evan sighs, lightly grabbing his hand. “I hope so…”

 

* * *

 

Tyler woke up slowly, to pain. “Fuck,” he mumbles, calling out instinctively for Craig into the empty room. He didn’t want to get up for fear of pulling his stitches, so he was stuck with sitting there.

 

“Sorry, it’s just me,” Brock says as he leaves his bedroom, smiling softly at him as he shuts his door behind him. “How are you feeling?”

 

“Like I’ve been shot,” he replies, smiling faintly at the recollection of a similar response from Craig. “I don’t wanna move, I’m afraid I’ll pull something,” he sighs.

 

“I’d rather you didn’t move anyway for that same reason. I’ve never stitched anyone like that before and I don’t know if I did a good enough job, to be honest,” Brock admits it as he wanders over to him. “Plus I’d really rather not ever have to do that again.”

 

He looks around. “Did Evan go back?” he asks, already worried about Craig.

 

“Yeah, he left a few hours ago,” Brock nods. “He said something about needing to make an excuse for you or something? Also apparently you left your phone there…? I don’t really know what he’s doing, but he said you’d understand, so…” he shrugs.

 

“I always do that,” Tyler mumbles, one hand drifting down to his bullet wound. “Promise I’ll come back,” he sounds almost guilty as he says it.

 

Brock  _almost_  points out the fact that he didn’t come back this time, but stops himself, knowing that would only upset him. “Well, he said he’d be back soon,” Brock says with a feeble smile, patting him gently on the leg before heading off into the kitchen. “Do you want any breakfast?”

 

He pauses to think. “Nah, I don’t wanna risk it,” he replies, shifting to sit up and groaning in pain as he lays back down.

 

“Well, let me know if you want anything,” Brock tells him as he rummages through the cupboards in search of something to eat. “Because I think I’m stuck being your butler until you can stand up on your own.”

 

Tyler laughs in the other room, quickly fading into a pained groan. “This’ll be a fun week,” he mumbles, tempted to sit up again but knowing it would only hurt.

 

“Maybe,” Brock laughs. “Evan will probably be here a lot too fretting over you, so maybe not that much fun,” he teases as he grabs a box of cereal and sets it on the counter. “He was convinced you were going to die, you know…”

 

“If I wanted someone to molest me I’d go home,” Tyler returns from the other room.

 

Brock rolls his eyes as he fetches a bowl and a spoon. “Yeah, you were very clear last night about what you and Craig get up to when no one else is around…” he says, grabbing a carton of milk from the fridge.

 

Tyler sighs from the other room, voice turning sad. “I miss him,” he muses, shifting on the couch again.

 

“Well, maybe when Evan comes back with your phone, you can call him,” Brock reassures him softly as he pours the cereal and milk into the bowl.

 

“I sound like someone stabbed me in the stomach, hell no. He’ll lose it,” Tyler replies, managing to sit up on the couch.

 

“Text him then? Judging by what Evan told me, you might be stuck here for a few days, so you mightn’t be able to talk to him otherwise, and I don’t know if it’s a good idea to completely cut contact with him until then…” Brock frowns as he returns to the living room and plops down on the recliner, bowl of cereal in hand.

 

Tyler sighs, looking at the door. “I don’t even know if I want Evan back, he’ll probably sit here and stare at me like I’ll die in the next five minutes,” he mutters, suddenly getting an idea. “How good are you at lying?” He looks at Brock with a devious look in his eyes.

 

“To Evan? Not very,” Brock admits, but still watches him amused regardless. “But I can try. What are you thinking?”

 

“Just a little heart attack,” he shrugs. “It’d be effortless. I’ll just lay here, try not to breathe and lead him to think I died or something,” he replies with a wide grin.

 

“You want me to tell him  _you died_?!” Brock exclaimed. “I don’t know, that might be taking it too far…”

 

“Not that I died. He won’t need that much. He’s probably worried as it is. "Just tell him I haven’t woken up yet, or that I’m still asleep,” he replies, already lying back down.

 

“Ohh, yeah I can do that,” Brock grins. “But don’t be surprised if he catches on immediately. I really can’t lie to him…”

 

“It’ll be easy. I’m already pretty weak from the blood loss, plus how much I’ve been moving around I’ll probably end up actually falling asleep,” Tyler shrugs, getting comfortable on the couch and closing his eyes.

 

“I don’t know if sitting up and then lying back down counts as moving,” Brock teases as he takes a bite of his cereal.

 

“Fuck you,” Tyler mumbles, voice fading sleepily.

 

“I’d rather you didn’t,” Brock says with a smile, watching him fondly.

 

Tyler hums, falling silent. Whether or not he’s actually asleep is to be debated, but his chest rises and falls for a few minutes before stopping abruptly at random points. Brock finishes his cereal in silence, scrolling through Twitter on his phone, and that’s the position Evan finds them in when he trudges in fifteen minutes later.

 

“Please tell me you have good news,” he sighs exasperated, frowning harshly and looking exhausted, as if he had just had a very rough few hours.

 

“Are you okay?” Brock asks in concern, and Evan shakes his head.

 

“No, not really. I kinda… I kinda had a fight with Craig,” he explains dejectedly, finally stepping inside and shutting the door behind him.

 

Tyler jolts up at the mention of Craig, eyes narrowing at Evan. “You didn’t tell him anything, did you?” he asks, getting up to walk over.

 

Evan looks at Tyler surprised, and his shoulder sink a little in relief. “Thank fuck you’re okay at least,” he says, smiling feebly at him. “For a while there, I was sure you were a goner…”

 

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Tyler returns, staying by the couch for a moment and very clearly in pain.

 

“You got shot, Tyler, and only had two amateurs to look after you. People don’t always survive that,” Evan points out to him, frowning sadly again.

 

“I’m still here. How’s Craig?” he asks, gingerly making his way over.

 

Evan winces. “Well… he kinda… overheard us talking last night, and considering you didn’t come home… he’s not… in a particularly good mood…” Evan explains vaguely, lightly biting his lip.

 

Tyler’s shoulders sink and he murmurs out a quiet. “Fuck,” as he stops beside Evan. “Did… how much did he hear?” he asks warily.

 

“He knows that we went after Syndicate last night,” Evan tells him, watching his reaction carefully.

 

Tyler’s face falls and he stares at the floor. “Shit. Is he mad at me?” he asks, glancing up at Evan.

 

“He thinks you’re dead,” Evan frowns. “And he got mad at me for not telling him where you are,” he adds, and fishes Tyler’s phone out of his pocket. “He’s called you three times since I left the apartment.” Tyler takes his phone, studying it for a moment before nodding and heading back to the couch.

 

“Brock, I might have to stay with you for a little while. I don’t know if Craig will let me back home,” Evan says softly, and Brock nods, setting his bowl aside to get up and pull him into a hug.

 

Tyler’s phone buzzes with a text message.

 

_Craig: where are you?????_

Tyler looks up at Brock. “Should I… tell him where I am?” he asks, unsure.

_Tyler: uhh, I’m okay._

_Craig: Then why didn’t you come back???_

Brock shrugs. “Whatever you want to do, buddy.”

_Tyler: I couldn’t. Still can’t. I can barely move._

Tyler bites his lip, hitting send before he can regret it.

_Craig: what happened??? Evan wouldn’t tell me :(_

_Tyler: I’m okay. I’m with Brock. He’s keeping an eye on me, so is Evan._

_Craig: answer the fucking question, Tyler._

Tyler visibly flinches at this, glancing at Evan.

_Tyler: something bad, okay? I protected Evan and I’m alive, focus on that._

_Craig: how bad?_

_Tyler: Evan kept me awake for three hours because he thought id die on him._

A long moment passes before Craig replies again.

_Craig: please tell me what happened to you…_

_Tyler: this crazy fucker shot me. Nanners. He giggled while he did it, that demented ass._

Another long moment passes.

_Craig: I’m coming over._

Tyler sighs and bites his lip, putting his phone down and waiting.

 

Two hours go by before Tyler starts twitching nervously and he speaks up to Evan about it. “Hey, Ev? How long does it take to get from your house to here?” he pipes up, managing to calm himself enough to not spark Evan’s worry.

 

“By foot? Like, five minutes? Not that long, at any rate,” Evan replies from the recliner he had settled into. “Why? Are you thinking of walking there? Because there’s no way in hell I’m letting you do that,” he says sternly.

 

“Then you’re fucking coming with me,” he snaps, that same fierceness from the night before returning as he gets up, walking over to the door as though he’d leave with or without Evan.

 

“Tyler, you really should be resting,” Evan, frowns, but gets up and follows after him anyway, glancing at Brock out of the corner of his eye who seems just as confused as he was. Tyler takes no time getting to the elevator, obviously impatient at several different things.

 

“Are you alright?” Evan asks concerned, hopping into the elevator just before the doors slide shut on him.

 

“I’m not worried about me, jackass,” Tyler seethes furiously as he hits the button a little harder than he probably needed to.

 

“Well I’m worried about you,” Evan says, leaning against the wall and folding his arms. “Craig can wait until you’re better. He’s not going to want you wandering around the city after what happened to you, and neither do we.”

 

Tyler almost explodes in rage. “No, he fucking can’t, Evan!” he snaps, storming out of the elevator as it opens.

 

“Tyler, calm down. What’s wrong?” Evan asks, jogging after him to keep up with him. “And slow down before you hurt yourself.”

 

“Craig texted me that he was coming over,” Tyler replies as he pushes the door open and exits onto the street. “Two hours ago.” It’s all Tyler can do to not break into a running sprint as soon as he gets the door open.


	15. Chapter 15

Evan’s heart drops when Tyler finally explains what’s going on, and suddenly he was worried too, his pace quickening.

 

It takes them no time at all to head home, and Evan unlocks the door with trembling hands, roughly shoving it open, and Tyler pushes in past him. The apartment is still and eerily quiet, and it’s immediately obvious the second he walks in that Craig isn’t home.

 

“Craig?” Evan calls out, stepping past Tyler to check Craig’s bedroom, swearing to himself when he finds it empty.

 

Tyler stops dead the second he takes a few steps into the apartment, falling to his knees as though he already knows. “It’s my fucking fault,” he whimpers, staring at the ground for a few minutes until he steels himself and gets up. “We have to get him,” he decides, following Evan to Craig’s room to investigate. “I bet it was fuckin’ Nanners,” he growls to himself.

 

“Hey, we don’t know that,” Evan says, and places both hands on his shoulders in an attempt to calm himself down. “Let’s not immediately jump to the worst. Maybe he stopped at a store or somewhere first, or got lost or something. Let’s not draw conclusions,” he tries to reassure them, pulling out his phone and calling Craig.

 

The voice that answers is definitely not Craig’s, and instead was deep and velvety, and he might have found it sexy if he had heard in any other situation. “Evan,” the voice purrs in a silky smooth voice that sounded sort of alluring.

 

Attractive voice or not, Evan tensed when someone other than Craig answers. “Who’s this?” he asks sharply, glancing up at Tyler as he speaks.

 

“Your worst nightmare,” the voice snarls out, suddenly turning ominous. “If you’re looking for your beloved brother, he’s right here. Isn’t that right, Craig?” the voice asks, sickly grin present as he evokes a tortured scream from Craig, followed immediately by pained sobbing. Tyler goes pale, furious rage emitting from him the second he hears Craig scream.

 

Evan’s grip on the phone tightens and his free hand clenches into a fist. “What are you doing to him?!” he snarls, glaring at nothing in particular.

 

“Nothing fun for him, I assume,” the voice merely shrugs, tightly gripping Craig’s chin and tilting it up. “Do you miss your boyfriend?” he asks, almost tauntingly. He receives a heart wrenching sob and a desperate cry for Tyler, who looks to be in the middle of a breakdown.

 

“But we’re having so much fun!” Nanners distantly whines, giggling.

 

Evan watches Tyler closely as the man speaks, and he has to wonder how on earth he knew that he was eavesdropping. A plethora of questions swarms his mind and he clenches his jaw, before eventually asking “Why? Why are you doing this?!”

 

The voice turns malicious. “You shot Syndicate, and you’re going to pay. Keep your friends close, Evan, or Brock will be next,” the voice snarls, staying on the phone long enough to permit another tortured cry from Craig before he hangs up.

 

Evan curses under his breath and immediately dials again, shifting on the spot in worry.

 

The only sound on the other end when the voice answers is Craig screaming and crying for them to stop, it hurts, asking where Evan was. His screams almost covered Nanners’ demented giggling, but Tyler heard it and his blood boiled.

 

“What the hell do you want?!” Evan asks, even if he isn’t sure that anyone was even listening to him, voice starting to waver a little as he listened to Craig in the background.

 

“Meet at the docks at midnight. No guns,” is all he says, and distantly Craig can be heard desperately whimpering Evan’s name.

 

“And then what?!” Evan asks harshly. “You kill both of us anyway?!”

 

He chuckles. “You’ll see,” he pauses, walking closer to Craig until they can hear the hiccups between when his sobbing stops.

 

“Evan,  _it hurts_ ,” Craig whines pitifully.

 

“Don’t be late,” the voice hums pleasantly before hanging up again.

 

Evan stares at the phone in his hands for a moment, as his shoulders begin to tremble. He doesn’t say anything for the longest time, but eventually takes a deep shaky breath and asks in a quiet voice “Did you hear all of that?”

 

Tyler doesn’t answer, instead steps forward and hugs Evan tightly. “We have to go,” is all he says, pressing a gentle kiss to Evan’s head.

 

Evan just as tightly wraps his arms around him and buries his face into his shoulder, immediately breaking down into a sobbing mess.

 

“We’ll get him back,” Tyler murmurs soothingly, staring at the wall and staying silent as Craig’s screams echoed through his mind.

 

“We fucking better,” Evan mumbles into his shoulder. “He’s the only family I have left…”

 

“I know, Evan, but we have to get back before they grab Brock, too,” he points out, grip tightening.

 

At the mention of Brock, Evan pulls out of Tyler’s grip, and grabs his wrist, tugging him after him as he storms out of the apartment. Tyler follows as best he can, not wanting to lose anyone else. Neither of them says a word until they arrive back at Brock’s apartment, and Evan flings his front door open.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tyler is destructive in the next few chapters and I always love destructive Tyler, it's like writing from the soul.

Brock was still in the armchair they left him in, and looks up at them surprised as they storm in. “Uh… is everything okay?” he asks, watching with confusion as Evan’s shoulders sink in relief and he crosses the room, climbing on top of him to wrap him up in a tight hug. Brock hesitantly wraps his arms around him, and looks up at Tyler, silently asking what was going on.

 

Tyler, however, collapses into the floor as soon as he steps inside, curling up into a ball and leaning against the wall, melting into a sobbing mess in seconds. Brock watches him with concern and wants to comfort him, but Evan is on top of him bawling as well and he can’t move, and instead soothingly rubs his back as he glances between the two of them concerned, waiting patiently for one of them to calm down enough to explain to him what happened.

 

Tyler pulls himself together quicker than he should, still trembling for several different reasons. He stands, walking over to Brock. “Okay. This… fuck, just… Evan shot a guy last night. Paralyzed him. And he was in some fuckin’ gang, and they got Craig, fucking… tortured him,” he stops intermittently, rubbing his face and biting back most of his emotions. “He kept screaming, bawling, begging for Evan to help and  _fuck_  it hurt just listening to him,” he whines in a heart wrenchingly sad voice.

 

“They’re hurting my little brother…” Evan whispers softly into Brock’s neck, grip tightening on him ever so slightly.

 

Brock doesn’t know what to say, and wraps one arm tightly around Evan and reaches the other out towards Tyler to reassuringly squeeze his arm. “…What have you gotten yourselves into?” he asks, letting out a small sigh. “Maybe you should go to the police?”

 

Tyler walks over, setting one hand on the chair. “We can’t. Brock… it’s not just us anymore,” Tyler quietly corrects him. “He said if we didn’t do what they asked…” he pauses, glancing at Evan for a moment. “You’re next,” he quietly finishes.

 

Brock freezes at that and swallows hard, as Evan squeezes him tighter and kisses his cheek. “Oh…” he says quietly. “What did… What did they ask you to do?”

 

“Go to the docks. That’s all he said,” Tyler replies, eyes distant and haunted. “They mentioned you specifically by name, too,” he mutters.

 

“How… did they know my name…?” Brock asks slowly, an edge of fear in his voice.

 

“That’s what I want to know,” Evan mumbles, finally sitting up straight but made no move to get up off of Brock’s lap, one arm still wrapped around his shoulders. “And how did they know Tyler was dating him?”

 

“He’s not exactly quiet,” Tyler mutters softly, staring at nothing. “Either he told them, or… they’ve been following us,” and he frowns, hating the second option.

“No, I don’t think Craig would tell them anything, even if he doesn’t know how to keep his mouth shut sometimes, he cares too much,” Evan frowns, and then sighs deeply. “So they had to have followed us then. Fuck, they’ve probably been hunting me down ever since and then followed me back to our apartment to Craig,” he groans, burying his face into his one free hand.

 

At the mention of how much Craig cared, Tyler seems to sort of snap and he backs away, curling up on the couch and sitting numbly, staring at the wall. Evan finally pulls himself away from Brock to sit down next to Tyler instead, wrapping his arms around him. “We’ll fix this, Tyler. I don’t… I don’t know  _how_ , but we’ll fix this, and we’ll all be okay, Craig especially. And then I’m never letting anything bad happen to any of you ever again.”

 

Tyler doesn’t respond, barely twitching at Evan’s touch due to how far gone he was into his own mind. “I want him back,” is all he dryly mumbles when he hears Craig’s name.

 

“Me too, and we’ll get him back, okay? No matter what, we’ll get him out of there safely, or as safely as we can, all things considering,” Evan winces at the memory of Craig’s screams and cries.

 

“Or die trying,” Tyler finishes a sentence Evan had never started, never once looking at him.

 

“Yeah,” Evan nods in agreement, even if he was very against the idea of losing Tyler too, he can’t deny that the thought of sacrificing himself didn’t cross his mind.

 

Brock watches them both sadly from the sidelines, frowning harshly, heavy feeling in his heart. “Let me help-”

 

“ _No_ ,” Evan says sharply, shooting him a look that told them there was no room for argument.

 

Tyler softly shakes his head, getting up. “I’m gonna go back and see if our guns are still there,” he murmurs. “Stay with him,” he orders, glancing back at Evan.

 

“I… actually grabbed mine when I went home this morning. I don’t really want to leave home without it any more,” Evan admits, lifting up his shirt to show where he’d hidden his pistol. “But Tyler you shouldn’t go alone. It’s too dangerous for any of us to be alone any more…” he says softly.

 

He doesn’t look back, hand resting on the doorknob. “If they get me… Good. I’m ready to die,” is all he says before leaving, slamming the door behind him.

 

“Tyler!” Evan calls after him, and gets up to follow him, but Brock grabs his arm and stops him.

 

“Let him go, Evan,” Brock says softly, and Evan still wants to chase him down to make sure he’s safe, but he knows he can’t leave Brock alone either and sighs. Brock tugs him into a hug, and Evan tightly wraps his arms around him and holds him close, as if this was the last time he’d ever get the chance to.


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> NSFW: Cutting. We do not condone the behavior, but I wrote it into the chapter anyway because I'm risque and I feel like it covers quite a few things nicely. The lesson I want it to have is that cutting is never the right answer and that it fucks up your arms/legs forever. There's other options and people that care. (But I'm angsty as fuck so this chapter is awful and sad)

Tyler is gone all day, and doesn’t return until around eleven at night. Even when he does, he’s mysteriously silent with blood dripping down both arms. Evan looks up from where he and Brock are cuddling on the couch when Tyler walks into the apartment and his eyes drift to the blood almost immediately. “What the fuck happened?!” he exclaimed, hopping up to his feet to fret over him.

 

Tyler silently rests one hand on Evan’s chest, gingerly pushing him away and meeting his eyes once before reaching under his shirt, taking his pistol and walking around him. He’s dead inside, judging by the look in his eyes as he walks to the kitchen.

 

“Tyler…” Evan says as he follows him, watching him closely. As they both head into the kitchen, Brock gets up and silently follows them too, no longer willing to let them do anything on their own any more.

 

Tyler continues to ignore Evan, stopping at the sink and setting the pistol down, pulling his jacket off and grabbing a washcloth, getting it wet and wiping the blood away. Once the blood is gone it reveals an extensive amount of cuts all over both arms, of varying depth. He offers no reaction to it, nor does he bother covering them.

 

“Tyler!” Evan snaps at him, and in spite of his stern tone, he grabs his wrist gently as he examines the cuts all along his arms, ignoring Brock gasping behind him. “What the hell did you do?” he asks softly, looking up at him with concern.

 

Tyler doesn’t once look at him, yanking his wrist away and pulling out knife after knife that he’d hidden everywhere. “Found out which one hurts the most,” he shrugs, revealing a raspy voice. “This one,” he picks up a switchblade, tucking it under his shirt again. “And this,” he grabs another one, offering it to Evan. “No guns, remember?” he points out, keeping his wrists visible so Evan could see them if he so desired.

 

Evan stares at him dumbfounded, and hesitantly takes the knife that was offered to him. “You didn’t… you really didn’t need to do that…” he says as he conceals it on his person. He wants to point out that hurting himself before what could potentially be a fight was a terrible idea, but he withheld that comment, worried what it would do to his fragile mental state.

 

“It’ll scare them more if I’m not afraid,” Tyler shrugs, dropping his arms at his sides and leaving his jacket off.

 

“It’ll show them that your arms are a weak point because you mutilated them,” Evan sighs, picking up and examining one of the knives Tyler had left on the counter. “But at least we’ll be armed I guess…”

 

Tyler falls eerily silent once more, staring off into space. “Jacket hurts,” is all he mumbles, as though the rest of the sentence got trapped in his mind and never made it out.

 

Evan just sighs, as Brock steps around him to dig around in the freezer, eventually producing an ice pack. “Here,” he mumbles, handing it to Tyler, eyeing him with concern.

 

Tyler glances at Brock long enough to take it from him, then realize the redundancy. “We gotta go soon,” he points out.

 

“I know just… let me bandage you at least,” Brock says, and fetches the first aid kit before waiting for an answer.

 

Evan leans back against the counter, still watching Tyler closely. “We don’t have a plan,” he states with a frown.

 

“ _You_  don’t,” is all Tyler counters with, seeming to fold under Brock and letting him fix his injuries, softening slightly.

 

“…Do you?” Evan asks, eyeing him skeptically as Brock tugged the kit over to him, pulling the bandages out of it and lightly took one of Tyler’s arms and began to wrap it.

 

Tyler willingly offers his arms to Brock, almost returning to his normal state. “I do,” he replies to Evan, keeping both eyes on Brock’s hands.

 

“Would you like to share it with me?” Evan presses him further, watching Brock’s nimble hands take care of Tyler.

 

“You wouldn’t like it,” he replies softly, starting to relax around Brock.

 

“…Why?” Evan asks with a frown.

 

“I know you, Evan. And I know I promised Brock I’d keep you safe. So I will,” he finally meets Evan’s eyes, and there can barely be seen the tiniest hint of emotion.

 

“I should have made you promise to keep yourself safe too,” Brock mutters to himself as he finishes bandaging one arm and goes to start on the other.

 

“This plan better not involve getting yourself hurt,” Evan frowns, eyeing him with concern.

 

Tyler rolls his eyes. “How could I possibly hurt myself more than what I’ve already done?” he points out, gently offering Brock his arm. Brock takes it, and begins to wrap a bandage around it.

 

“You’re a stubborn fuck. I’m sure you’d find a way,” Evan comments, looking him up and down. “I don’t want to lose you too…” he adds softly. Tyler falls silent, watching Brock work as though the man is somehow helping further than mere bandages. “Tyler… I trust you, but I don’t know if can blindly follow a plan that’s going to get you hurt or worse,” Evan admits.

 

“I’m trying to keep you safe,” he replies, glancing over at Evan and looking almost worried.

 

“Yeah, and I want to keep  _you_  safe,” Evan frowns, just as worried as Tyler was.

 

“I know,” he sighed, turning back to Brock. “Should we risk checking the stitching?” he asks hesitantly, not sure if they have enough time to.

 

“A quick look wouldn’t hurt,” Brock says as he finishes with his arm, and gently tugs up his shirt, examining the dark stitching on Tyler’s side. “It looks fine to me… Just be careful not to do anything that would risk pulling them out, if you can help it. I mean, I know you might not be able to help it, but still… Be careful.”

 

Tyler nods, then looks at Evan. “Ready?” he asks, gingerly stepping around Brock and approaching, pulling his jacket on.

 

Evan takes a deep breath as he steps away from the counter, grabbing a loose knife that was on the counter and hiding it on his person as well. “Yeah,” he breathes, and then turns to Brock, cupping his face in his hands. “I’m going to leave my gun here, use it if anyone other than me, Tyler, or Craig walk through that door,” he mutters softly and scans his face, as if committing it to memory.

 

Brock nods as he lightly grips at Evan’s waist and tugs him closer, a lump in his throat as his eyes slowly fill with tears. “Be careful,” he says softly, and then closes the distance between them, kissing each other tenderly and fervidly as if it was the last kiss they’d ever share, worried that they were never going to see each other again.

 

Tyler smiles faintly at them, walking ahead and waiting just outside the door for Evan. He didn’t need to wait long, as Evan followed after him a moment later, shutting the door as he wiped tears from his eyes. “Let’s just go,” he mutters under his breath, eyes cast downwards as he leads them to the elevator. Tyler nods, sticking close to his side and grabbing his hand.

 

* * *

 

By the time they made it to the dock, it was pitch black. “What the fuck? I can barely see you,” Tyler grumbles, letting go of Evan and venturing forward towards the ocean. “Are they even here?” he asks softly, searching the docks for anything aside from boats and storage crates.

 

“They’re probably hiding in the shadows somewhere. They seem to be fond of doing that,” Evan mutters, looking around them on high alert, watching and waiting for something to jump out at them again.

 

As soon as Evan turns to look at Tyler, a tiny red dot appears in the middle of his back, evident of a nearby gunman.

 

Once his focus was on that, Nanners stealthily crept out of the shadows, stopping directly behind Evan and clamping one hand over his mouth, dragging him back into the shadows as Evan squirmed in his grip.

 

“God damn it, if they’re late…” Tyler stops, turning around and frowning when he found himself alone. “Evan?” he calls out, backing away from the shadows.


	18. Chapter 18

The docks were dark and eerie, even more so when he stood in the centre of the clearing by himself. It was too quiet, and the silence was only broken by the sound of what could be rats banging against something metallic, but for all he knew, it was another person hiding in the darkness waiting for him. His voice as he called out for Evan echoed, the sound bouncing off the storage crates around him, but Evan never replied.

 

“What’s wrong, Tyler? Scared?” The same voice from the phone taunts as floodlights flash on from both ends of the dock, revealing a man as tall as Tyler on one end of the dock, accompanied by an almost as tall bald man with a disturbingly tight grip on Craig, who looked far worse for wear. All of his visible skin was littered with cuts and bruises, and he was nursing a black eye and a busted lip. He seemed to be completely out of it, in so much pain that he didn’t seem to be entirely aware of what was going on around him.

 

When he spun around, stupidly ignoring the shotgun aimed straight at his chest, he found Evan on his knees, looking very pissed off, Nanners by his side with a demented grin and a gun. Another man stood a few feet away, light ginger hair looking messed and tired but he was tall enough to make Nanners appear like the midget he was.

 

Once he finds that Evan is still alive, he turns to study Craig. “What the fuck did you do to him?” he demands, unbridled hatred shining through his voice.

 

“Oh you know, nothing much,” the man holding Craig says with a shrug, adjusting his grip on him, and Craig whines half heartedly as he brushes against some of his more sensitive wounds. “Max here just wanted us to show him what happens when his gang leader brother, and his boyfriend don’t behave themselves.”

 

Tyler takes a step forward when Craig whines, only to have Max’s gun reasserted in his face. “Ah-ta ta ta ta, not yet,” he replies with a grin. “You have a decision to make, Tyler,” his grin doubles when Tyler glares at him, confused, before turning to Evan.

 

“What fuckin’ decision?” Tyler demands as he turns back to face Max.

 

“Between Craig, and Evan,” Max gestures to them briefly with the barrel of his gun. “Who dies?” Max grins, watching as Tyler turned to look at Evan. “Take as much time as you need. Or, not really. You have five minutes,” Max shrugs.

 

“Tyler! Save Cr-” Evan begins to call out, only for Nanners to smack him over the head with his gun, and then have him and his partner push him flat onto the dock.

 

“Shhhhh it’s not your decision to make,” the other man mumbles, pressing Evan’s face down against the wood.

 

Tyler turns back to look at Craig, feeling his heart constrict painfully in his chest. “I made my decision,” he speaks up after a second.

 

Max almost looks disheartened. “That’s it? It took you, like, four seconds,” he mutters to himself. “So? Who is it? Who dies?” Max asks, noticing how Nanners’ face lights up at the last question.

 

“Me,” Tyler replies firmly, folding his arms across his chest no matter how his arms stung.

 

The docks fall silent for a moment as everyone processes that response, the only sound breaking it is Evan’s muffled groaning as he tries to squirm out of Nanners grip and stop Tyler from sacrificing himself.

 

The man holding Craig leans over to Max. “Uhh… that wasn’t an option,” he mutters, as if Max wasn’t well aware of that fact.

 

Max shakes his head, clearly interested in this. “Wake him up, this’ll be fun,” he mutters back, nudging Craig with his gun before he approaches Tyler. “That’s your solution to everything, isn’t it? Save them at the cost of anything, even yourself?” Max asks, pressing the barrel of his shotgun against Tyler’s forehead.

 

“Yeah,” Tyler replies, glaring him down and frowning when Max’s eyes venture down to his wrists.

 

“What’s that?” he asks, eyes focused on the tiny bit of bandage sticking out. In response, Tyler yanks his jacket off and displays his arms, then drops them at his sides.

 

Craig’s captor shakes him a little, and eventually Craig starts to drift into consciousness, moaning quietly as pain shoots through his entire body. He looks around him confused, jolting and eyes widening when he catches sight of Tyler. “Ty-!” is all he manages to get out before the man holding him slaps a hand over his mouth.

 

“What did we tell you about speaking out of turn?” he hums into his ear, but Craig pays him no heed, eyes locked on Tyler and Max in front of him.

 

Tyler glances over when he hears Craig, eyes narrowing. Max is quick to recapture his attention when he calls for Hutch, offering his gun to the man. “Hold this, I wanna investigate,” he orders, pulling a knife out and slicing it down Tyler’s arm, provoking no response as he cuts the bandages away, knife scraping against his skin. “Does it hurt?” Max taunts, grinning at him.

 

Immediately Tyler realizes how right Evan was, and he bites back a groan. “No,” he snaps too quickly, only for Max to slice at several of them, provoking a pained groan.

 

“How about now?” Max demands, grin widening.

 

Craig squirms in his captor’s grip, his hand muffling his desperate screams and pleas for Max to stop, and to leave him alone. All his squirming only aggravates the hidden bruising and cuts beneath his shirt, but for the first time all day, he doesn’t seem to care.

 

Now that Hutch was out of the way, Evan only had Nanners left to deal with, and knew that if he was going to do something, he had to do it now while everyone was still distracted. He slowly reaches for one of the hidden knives, careful that Nanners wouldn’t notice, and the second he had a firm grip on the handle, he whips it out and sinks it into Nanners’ thigh.

 

Nanners lets out no more than a squeak, and then an oomph as Evan kicks him off of him. He’s quick to fight back however and reaches to pin him again, but as Evan attempts to wrestle him off of him, the pair end up rolling off the dock and into the dark water below.

 

Tyler whips around. “Evan!” he yells, only for Hutch to nudge his head with the shotgun.

 

“Focus, Tyler,” Max calls, smiling at him when Tyler turns back around. “How about that bullet? Did Nanners hit anywhere important?” he presses, seeming unaffected by his possible loss of a gang member as he lifts up Tyler’s shirt. “Stitches! How impressive,” Max purrs. “Be a shame if someone pulled them out,” he notes with a dangerous grin, tracing his knife along the stitches Brock had been so careful about.

 

Craig watched as Evan splashed into the ocean, but then he was quick to focus on Tyler again. His captor however, was much more concerned about the two men who were submerged underneath the surface. He pulls his pistol out of the holster and blindly points it at the water, waiting and watching carefully for Evan’s head to pop up.

 

Tyler sends continuous glances at Craig’s captor, growing concerned about Evan despite Max right in front of him. “Have you been focusing at all today?” Max snaps suddenly when he notices Tyler looking away.

 

“You need to pay attention if you want to give Brock a play by play of what I did,” he scolds, slicing the stitches open effortlessly and smiling when Tyler doubled over in pain.

 

“Fuck!” he hisses, setting one hand over his stomach only to find his arms bleeding as well. “Oh, Brock is gonna kill me,” he mumbles under his breath.

 

“Not if I beat him to it,” Max corrects, having heard him.


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lots of people die.

Craig jolts when Tyler doubles over, and the action is enough to distract his captor enough to miss shooting Evan when he resurfaces to catch a breath, and then immediately dive back under, Nanners nowhere in sight. “You little shit,” he swears under his breath, and tightly squeezes Craig, knowing it would hurt his sensitive bruises, and ignores his groans of pain as he points his gun back at the ocean again.

 

“Should I help them catch the other one?” Hutch asks Max, his shotgun still pointed firmly at Tyler.

 

Max pauses for a moment. “Fine. Craig isn’t going anywhere with Tyler this close in this much pain,” he shrugs. “And Tyler won’t go anywhere or risk bleeding to death again,” he reasons, turning back to Tyler. “Speaking of bleeding to death, how’s that working out for you?” he taunts.

 

“Great,” Tyler spits out venomously, straightening up to confront Max.

 

Hutch wanders over to where Craig was standing and begins pointing his gun at the water as well. “Sark, I’ll cover the right, you cover the left,” he mutters, and Sark nods, placing his back to his partner as he examines the ocean carefully.

 

What they didn’t know however was that Evan was beneath them, hidden by the very dock they were standing on, an unconscious Nanners in his arms. He takes the gun from his limp hands and tosses him aside, watching him float for a second as he tried to figure out what he was supposed to do next.

 

Tyler lets one arm go limp, grabbing the knife he’d hidden. “Does it hurt?” he asks softly, forcing Max to lean in.

 

“What?” he inquires, eyes narrowed and searching everything on the dock at once for a sign of Evan or Nanners.

 

“Does it hurt, bitch?!” Tyler suddenly yells, whipping his knife out and stabbing Max in the neck, shoving him into the water.

 

Hutch turns when he hears Tyler’s yell and immediately points his gun at him, but before he gets a chance to pull the trigger, Evan pops up and fires at him first, the bullet penetrating his back and shooting out through his chest. Hutch falls to the ground in a heap, and Evan dives back under in an attempt to avoid Sark rapidly shooting at him in quick succession.

 

Craig could only watch on wide eyed with bated breath as everyone acts around him, hating that he was so useless and helpless.

 

Tyler stares into the water for a moment, confirming that Max is dead before he looks back at Sark. “Scared?” he asks with a grin, taking a step closer.

 

Sark whips around when he’s addressed, and stares Tyler down, smirking ever so slightly as he points his gun down at Craig’s foot and fires. Craig’s bloodcurdling scream fills the air and he almost collapses to the ground, but Sark’s tight grip just manages to keep him upright. He then prods his gun into Craig’s jaw. “No, are you?”

 

Tyler trembles in rage, never taking his eyes off Sark for fear of alerting him of Evan. “I’ve survived worse, princess,” he growls out, not wanting to take his eyes off Sark and find out what Craig looked like.

 

Evan pops back up behind Sark, but he knows he can’t shoot at him without risking hurting Craig too, and he merely floats in the sea, having no choice but to watch as the events play out, lightly biting his lip with worry.

 

“Has your boyfriend? Because he’s the one you should be worried about,” Sark points out, daring to step closer to Tyler. “Can he survive a bullet in the noggin? Because he barely survived everything else Nanners did to him earlier. You should have seen him, he was having the time of his life,” he chuckles. “Well, Nanners that is. Little Craig here? Not so much. He did make some _lovely_  sounds though!”

 

“I found that much out on my own,” Tyler shrugs. “He likes it rough,” he adds with a playful wink, deciding to play along judging by how cocky Sark was bound to get. He fakes scared, shifting nervously and flickering his gaze to Craig every few seconds.

 

“Oh really? He didn’t seem to like it when Nanners got rough with him. Didn’t seem to like it when Syndicate told us all about your little kiss either,” Sark presses further, and takes another step closer, Craig whimpering in his arms. “Probably won’t like it if I shoot you either,” he adds, pointing his gun at Tyler’s forehead.

 

“Do it, then,” Tyler challenges him, taking a step closer and staring him down. “Or are you not man enough? After everything I’ve done to you, to Syndicate,” he glances at the water. “To Max,” he grins, looking back at Sark. “I dare you,” he growls out.

 

Sark’s grin falters and his aim wavers a little. “Or, how about this: you cut your losses, and move out of the way, and me and your little plaything here are going to leave, safe and sound. No one else gets shot, your friend in the water back there gets to go back to his boyfriend, and then one day in the future, maybe days, maybe weeks, little Craig here will show up on your doorstep and you two can go back to chomping on each other’s necks. How does that sound?” Sark hums, and for one reason or another, seems to want to avoid firing his gun.

 

Tyler takes a step forward. “See, I didn’t realize you were in a position to make offers, Sark,” he replies. “Seeing as you’re the only one left,” he looks around, frowning at Hutch’s body. “So why don’t you just take a tiny step away from him, before I tear your fucking throat out with my bare hands,” he counters.

 

“See, I _am_  in a position to make offers because I’m the one with the gun and the hostage,” Sark points out, pushing the barrel a little rougher into Craig’s jaw, earning himself a whimper for his troubles. “If you step too close, then he’s gone, and you’re going to have to find a different foreigner to chew on.”

 

Tyler frowns. “See, thing is, I really like  _that one_  though,” he groans as though inconvenienced, looking down at Craig and then back at Sark. “And even if you do have the gun, Evan has the ammo,” he points out, glancing to the water.

 

Realising that he’d been caught out, Sark’s smirk was quickly wiped off his face. “Fuck you,” he spat, tossing Craig off the dock and into the ocean, immediately darting off in the opposite direction, dropping his unloaded gun. The second Craig splashed into the water, Evan began swimming towards him with no hesitation, desperate to save his little brother.

 

Seeing that Evan would be able to get Craig, Tyler takes a few steps after Sark only to immediately collapse on the dock from blood loss.

 

As Sark disappeared off into the distance, Evan grabbed Craig and pulled him onto dry land and immediately began fretting over him. “Hey, are you okay?” he asks softly as Craig coughed up the water from his lungs, and he soothingly rubs his back. Craig nods when he calms down, and Evan gently tugs him into a hug, careful not to hurt him too much. “I was so fucking worried about you,” he mutters into his hair.

 

“I know,” Craig responds, his voice hoarse.

 

“I’m never letting you out of my sight again,” Evan adds, lightly kissing the top of his head.

 

“I know,” Craig says again, smiling softly. They hold each other for a moment, wrapped in each other’s arms, and then Craig voices “Where’s Tyler?”

 

By now, Tyler has picked himself up and walked over, but the only thing keeping him on his feet is sheer stubbornness. “I’m definitely not gonna get much farther, Ev,” he replies from a few feet away, both arms and his stomach covered in blood.

 

“Shit,” Evan swears as he scrambles to his feet to meet him.

 

“Tyler?” Craig asks in his broken voice, tone and gaze laced with concern.

 

Tyler looks over and manages a smile, but it fades quickly as his face gets paler and paler. “Ev, we gotta go because you definitely can’t carry me,” he presses, watching him with the serene calm of ‘I’m going to die’ that surrounds him.

 

“I’ll call Brock to pick us up in his car, that way you don’t have to move too much, okay?” Evan suggests and reaches to fish Tyler’s phone out of his pocket, knowing that his own wouldn’t work with all the water damage.

 

Tyler watches him, putting most of his effort into standing upright as his mind drifted back to last night. “I don’t get why you got the fatal shot when he kissed me,” Tyler complains, shooting him a weak glare. He steps around Evan and walks to Craig, keeping both arms wrapped around his stomach to stop any more blood from seeping onto his already blood  soaked shirt.

 

“Because I have better aim,” Evan teases, dialing Brock’s number and steps off to the side to call him and ask them to come pick them up, remembering to request that he bring his first aid kit and as many towels as he could carry.

 

Craig looks up at Tyler from where he was sitting on the ground, eyeing his arms and his stomach in concern, his own bullet wound and various pains temporarily forgotten in favour of worrying over him. “Are you going to be okay?” he asks softly, and wants to get up to wrap his arms around him, but knows that he’s in no condition to stand up on his own.

 

“No,” Tyler replies softly, kneeling beside Craig.

 

 _“‘No’?”_  Craig repeated, heart twisting painfully in his chest. “What do you mean  _‘no’_?!”

 

Tyler pulls his hands away from his stomach slowly, revealing a worrying amount of blood. “Half my blood is outside my body. If I do live I’ll need a blood transfusion or something,” he replies, voice dwindling weakly.

 

“Well then we’ll get you one! There’s bound to be a doctor in some hospital  _somewhere_  that will know how to help you!” Craig exclaims and shuffles closer to him, but is afraid to touch him knowing that his open wounds touching Tyler’s was probably not a safe idea.

 

He shakes his head. “Craig….” he murmurs quietly, cupping his face.

 

“Tyler, they can help you,” Craig repeats in a much softer tone, looking up at him with sad eyes, before pressing his forehead to his.

 

“Yeah, I know,” Tyler replies, leaning in and pecking his lips.

 

“Then let them help you,” Craig mutters against his lips, before kissing him again more deeply.

 

Tyler’s touch is much too gentle and he pauses long enough to mumble “I love you,” against his lips.

 

“I know,” Craig smiles weakly, recalling the previous night when he’d woken up and heard Tyler whisper those exact words to him when he thought he was asleep. “I love you too. Please be okay.”

 

Tyler doesn’t say anything, instead getting up before he got too tired and fell asleep. “Well?” he walks over to Evan, and the second their eyes meet Evan knows he’s going to die, mostly on gut feeling, but that doesn’t mean he’s willing to accept it.

 

“Brock will be here soon. Sit back down and rest yourself until he gets here, and hold your jacket to that wound to help stop the bleeding,” Evan orders him, wandering back to the dock to retrieve the jacket Tyler had taken off and dropped earlier, and hands it back to him.

 

Tyler watches him, setting one hand on his shoulder. “Evan,” he say softly, voice dead serious.

 

When Tyler doesn’t take the jacket from him, Evan presses it against the wound in his side for him. “Tyler,” he replies, tone just as stern.

 

Too weak to raise his voice, Tyler replies in his same quiet voice. “I’m dying and you know it,” he stares Evan down.

 

“You’ll be fine, Tyler. Sit down and preserve your strength,” Evan mutters and tries to lead him over to a storage crate he can sit down and lean himself against it, doing his best to reassure him even though he didn’t entirely believe his words himself.

 

“Will I?” Is all he says, sliding down the storage crate and taking slow, heavy breaths.

 

“ _Yes_. Now hold this and hang in there while I go get Craig,” Evan says softly, pressing the jacket against his wound a little more firmly as he waits for him to take it. Tyler finally relents, taking the jacket and watching Evan go.

 

“Evan,” Craig mutters as Evan bends down to wrap an arm around him and help him to his feet. “Tyler says he’s not going to be okay…”

 

“Well he will be,” Evan says firmly as he helps him limp over to where Tyler was resting, and Craig frowns, knowing Evan well enough to know that he was trying to reassure himself more than anyone else.

 

When they reach the crate, Evan helps Craig lower to the ground, and Craig quickly shuffles close to Tyler until they’re side by side, shoulders touching. Tyler relaxes at his touch, perhaps a bit too much as his eyes start closing.

 

“Tyler, don’t,” Craig mumbles softly, and lightly bumps against him in an attempt to keep him awake, wincing a little as he accidentally hurt himself in the process.

 

“No sleeping until you get home,” Evan says sternly and sighs as he drops down onto the ground in front of them, remembering how he had to say something similar the night before, hating how this seemed to be becoming a regular occurrence between them.

 

Tyler’s eyes open once he hears Craig, and he tilts his head up to gently kiss his neck. “Sorry,” he rasps out, voice unusually quiet.

 

“I’ll forgive you if you promise to stay awake?” Craig asks softly, watching him with concern, not paying much attention to Evan as he takes off his shoe to get a better look at his injured foot.

 

After a pause, Tyler hums. “Okay. For you,” he nuzzles into Craig’s shoulder, forcing his eyes open.

 

“Good,” Craig mutters, and rests his head against Tyler’s, only to immediately wince as Evan aggravated his wound.

 

“Sorry,” Evan apologises as he gently holds his foot. “But hey, at least he didn’t shoot off any of your toes,” he adds, smiling weakly before shrugging off his jacket to wrap it around Craig’s bullet wound, and it isn’t until then that it becomes obvious that at some point during the fight, a bullet clipped his shoulder.

 

Having been in the middle of staring at Evan anyway, Tyler catches it immediately and jerks up. “Holy shit! Ev, he shot you!” Tyler snaps, eyes wide.

 

“Evan!” Craig snaps up too, suddenly concerned for his safety as well.

 

“Hmm? Oh yeah, he got me when I was in the water,” Evan shrugs. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it. You two are more important.”

 

Tyler doesn’t stop staring at him, clearly transfixed on Evan. He doesn’t do much more, too weak to move. Craig turns to face and lightly kisses his cheek before resting his head on his shoulder as they wait. “I’m glad you came for me,” he says softly. “Even if it got you hurt, I’m still glad you’re here.”

 

“I’ll always come get you,” Tyler softly mumbles, smiling down at him.

 

Craig smiles up at him and leans up to gently kiss him, and Evan turns his head away to let them have their moment. Evan perks up when he hears a car drive into the docks, and he picks himself up off the ground to meet Brock and wave him over to them. Tyler leans in to meet Craig for the kiss, cupping his face and pulling him closer, as Craig lightly grips the back of his neck and tilts his head, shuffling closer to him.

 

Not even a moment later, Brock rushes onto the scene looking way too stressed out and worried for someone who had just arrived, first aid kit in hand and Evan carrying towels in tow. “I hate to interrupt, but Tyler I need to rebandage you,” Brock says, kneeling down on the ground next to him. “We need to stop the bleeding so you don’t die on the way to the hospital.”

 

Tyler pulls away, looking over at him. “Alright,” he mumbles softly, offering his arms up to Brock.

 

Brock winces when he catches sight of his arms, but gently takes his wrist and begins rewrapping it, as Evan drops the towels down next to them. He takes one and hands it to Craig, before taking another one and beginning to dry himself off. Once he’s a bit drier, he drops down next to them again, takes a second roll of bandages out of the kit, and wordlessly begins wrapping up Craig’s foot temporarily until they can take better care of it later.

 

Tyler hesitantly pauses, not wanting to tell Brock that his stitches got pulled out and instead settling for “Evan got shot,” in a tattle tale voice.

 

Brock’s head snaps up to Evan, eyes wide, and Evan shoots Tyler a glare. “You got shot?! You didn’t tell me you got shot!” Brock exclaims worriedly, biting his lip as he finally spots the wound on his shoulder.

 

“I’ll be fine. It just clipped me. Keep helping Tyler,” Evan insists, smiling at him to reassure him, and even though Brock remains unconvinced, he goes back to wrapping up Tyler’s arms anyway, and the second he turns away, Evan shoots Tyler another glare for ratting him out.

 

The second Brock looks away, Tyler leans over and gently bites Craig’s neck, making sure to take his time in sinking his teeth in.

 

“Tyler, don’t, everything hurts,” Craig hisses as his teeth scrape against a cut on his neck, and he pushes him away. Tyler hums softly, kissing his neck and mumbling an apology, which Craig accepts and he melts into his touch.

 

As soon as Brock is finished tending to his arms, he sits back and glances down at Tyler’s side. “Did your stitches come out?” he asks, wondering if he needs to rebandage that too.

 

“No,” he hisses. “They got cut out,” Tyler grumbles, wincing at the pain.

 

Brock frowns. “Well… I’d stitch you up, but at this point, it’s probably best if you went to a hospital and saw a professional, so I’ll just wrap you up to slow the bleeding for the time being, okay?” he says and shuffles a little closer to him to get better access to his side.

 

He nods, pulling his shirt up to reveal a sticky, bloody mess under which the actual wound could barely be found. Brock winces a little and his stomach churns at the sight, but he does his best to push past it and starts wrapping that injury too with a gentle touch, careful not to hurt him.

 

Meanwhile, Evan finishes with Craig’s foot and tugs off his shirt, shuffling closer to him to allow Craig to take the rest of the bandages and wrap them around Evan’s shoulder.

 

Tyler keeps his eyes on Craig, not too concerned with what Brock was doing due to how much he’d grown to trust him. For once, Craig doesn’t pay much attention to Tyler, too focused on taking care of Evan to take notice of his staring, but Evan himself looks up and catches Tyler’s eye, and offers him a smile. Tyler unconsciously returns the smile, seeming rather addicted to Craig.

 

It’s not long until they’re all stitched up, and Brock puts the remaining bandages away, making the mental note to buy more tomorrow. “Can you walk?” he asks Tyler as he stands up, though he has the sinking feeling that he already knows the answer.

 

Tyler pushes himself up, successfully managing to but it’s blatantly obvious that it sucks all his energy rather quickly and he turns pale in seconds. “Yeah,” he lies through gritted teeth.

 

Brock doesn’t believe him. “I’m going to help you to the car anyway,” he says, and wraps an arm around his waist and begins leading him to the car. Tyler offers no resistance, leaning heavily on Brock most of the way there. As Brock drags him to his car, Evan carefully picks up Craig and carries him after them, ignoring his protests that he can walk on his good foot just fine.

 

Brock opens one of the back seat car doors for Tyler, and helps him inside. Tyler immediately relaxes into the seat once he sits down, smiling over at Craig. “Fun being carried, huh?” he guesses.

 

“Only by the right person,” Craig replies as he climbs into the backseat next to him. Evan closes the door for him before hopping into the front seat, pulling his seat forward a little bit so Tyler would have more leg room behind him. Tyler smiles faintly at this, nuzzling his face into Craig’s neck. Craig returns the smile and kisses his cheek, lightly touching his knee as Brock starts the car and starts driving them to the hospital.

 

Tyler hums, pressing kisses up and down his neck. “Keep your hands to yourself, rumor has it you’re still sore,” he taunts with a grin.

 

“Not because of you,” Craig pouts, but quickly smiles again at the affection Tyler was pouring on him, and Brock giggles from the front at the face Evan was making as he tried his best to ignore what was happening in the backseat.

 

Grinning at Evan’s face, Tyler continues smothering him in kisses. “Not yet,” he purrs in reply.

 

“You’ll have to be gentle this time. I don’t want you to hurt me, and I don’t want to hurt you either,” Craig says softly, and catches his lips with his own.

 

Tyler gently rests one hand on Craig’s leg, returning the kiss but pulling away much sooner than he should’ve with a tired, fading look in his eyes.

 

“Are you okay?” Craig asks, suddenly concerned. Resting his head on Craig’s shoulder, Tyler hums faintly before falling still. “Tyler?” Craig voices urgently, lightly shaking his shoulder. Tyler doesn’t move freely, not even offering up a soft murmur of acknowledgement.

 

“Tyler!” Craig exclaims and shakes him again, a little harder this time, panic clear in his voice. “Tyler wake up! Tyler please don’t do this to me, please wake up,” he pleads, his voice shaky, and at this point, Evan turns around in his seat to see what’s going on as Brock presses down a little harder onto the accelerator. “ _Please don’t leave me…!_ ”


	20. Chapter 20

Once he hears Craig desperately yelling, Tyler squeezes his eyes shut but makes no move to open them. “You say I’m rough,” he grumbles out, voice low and eerily weak.

 

“Tyler!” Craig exclaims relieved and flings his arms around his neck, squeezing him tightly. “Don’t fucking do that to me!” he mumbles into his shoulder.

 

“I can’t promise it won’t happen again,” he softly replies, letting one arm brush across Craig’s waist but unable to make any other move to hug him.

 

“I don’t want to lose you,” Craig mumbles, and tightens his grip ever so slightly at the mere thought.

 

Tyler sighs. “I know,” he replies, managing a weak smile. Craig is reluctant to let him go and buries his face into his shoulder, and takes a deep shaky breath. Tyler doesn’t say anything, leaning back in his seat and trying not to fall asleep, or worse, as Craig clings to him for the rest of the journey, afraid that he’ll disappear if he ever lets go.

 

They arrive at the hospital a few moments later, and Brock and Evan hop out of the car and open Tyler’s door to let him out. “Come on,” Brock says softly, offering him his arm to help him climb out. Tyler takes his hand, finding it harder and harder to say no to Brock the more he spent time with him.

 

Craig goes to climb out after Tyler, but Evan stops him. “No, not you,” he says with a frown.

 

“What?! Why?” Craig exclaims, confused.

 

“Because if you go in there littered in bruises and covered in blood, then they’re going to think that Tyler,  _your boyfriend_ , did that to you, especially since we won’t be able to tell them the truth,” Evan explains softly.

 

Tyler glances back, realizing Evan has a point. “Brock will text someone, maybe,” he shrugs, tightening his grip on Brock and wincing in pain as he does so.

 

“Yeah, I’ll text you,” Brock agrees with a curt nod as he snakes an arm around Tyler’s waist to keep him upright, smiling sweetly.

 

Craig seems very reluctant to let Tyler out of his sight, but he knows he has no choice in the matter and sinks back into the car. “Okay,” he mumbles dejectedly, shutting the car door.

 

All the talk about texting reminds Evan that he still has Tyler’s phone from earlier, and he hands it back to him. “Text one of us later, if you’re able,” he tells him, and then adds “Maybe Craig. My phone was in the ocean too long and isn’t working, but his might be fine.” Tyler doesn’t say anything, leaning on Brock and straining to keep his eyes open. Evan then turns to Brock. “Text Craig to keep us updated,” he says in a softer tone than what he used with Tyler, and gives him a small kiss before heading back to the car to take Craig home.

 

“Let’s go get you a doctor,” Brock smiles, and gently nudges Tyler as he leads him inside.

 

Tyler just smiles weakly, suppressing a cough. “Can we please go inside before I die?” he grumbles, sounding worse for wear.

 

Brock nods, and leads him inside to finally get the help he sorely needed.

 

* * *

 

The longer Tyler spent in the hospital, the more it took its toll on everyone. Evan wasn’t allowed to see Brock or risk something happening to Craig again, Brock couldn’t leave Tyler and risk something happening to him, and Craig couldn’t see Tyler while he was so bruised up. It didn’t take long for everyone to get pent up and irritated. Aside from Brock, of course, who spent every moment of his time annoying Tyler with any pun he could think of.

 

“Hey, Tyler?” Brock spoke up one morning after a few weeks of being stuck in that room keeping Tyler company. Tyler merely hummed, glaring over like he already knew exactly what was coming. “Orange you ready to go home yet?” Brock grins, sipping his orange juice.

 

“I’m gonna fuckin’ eviscerate you,” Tyler groans loudly, shooting a murderous glare at him.

 

“Should I come back at a better time?” A nurse asks from the door, wide blue eyes earning their attention.

 

“Why, what do you want?” Tyler asks, remembering the nurse by his distinct strange voice.

 

The nurse smiles at him. “Doc says you can go tomorrow if you behave, which means no murdering your friends,” he scolds gently as he turns to look at Brock. “Can I talk to you in the hallway a minute?” he asks.

 

“Uhh, sure,” Brock replies confused, and shoots Tyler a look as he gets up and follows the nurse out to the corridor, gently shutting the door behind him. “What’s going on? Is everything okay?”

 

The nurse sighs, shoulders dropping slightly. “Honestly? No. He should be dead. The fact that he’s alive at all is an act of sheer perseverance. Keep an eye on him. His blood’s way too low as it is, but we have no reason to keep him here,” he replies, looking around.

 

“Is there anything we could do to get his blood count back up at least?” Brock frowns in concern.

 

“Very light exercise. Like moving his arms around, keeping blood circulating. Iron pills. No heavy activity, no bleeding. He can’t lose any blood. It’s a miracle he didn’t die on the way to the hospital,” the nurse replies, glancing back at Tyler and finding him asleep already.

 

Brock nodded and lightly bit his lip, remembering the scare Tyler had given them when he passed out on Craig in the backseat. “Okay. I’ll make sure he behaves himself,” he says and gives him a curt nod, making the mental note to purchase some iron supplements on the way home.

 

“Oh, and you can check him out whenever you’re ready, the doctor just needs to make sure he’s still doing… uh… alive,” the nurse shifts delicately then walks off.

 

Brock thanks the nurse before he leaves and quietly slips back into the hospital room again, debating with himself as to whether or not he should wake up Tyler to pass on the news, but decides against it, choosing to let him rest and enjoy the little peace and quiet he gets any more instead.

 

The doctor comes by a few hours later, bright smile on his face as he wakes up Tyler and checks his vitals before clearing him to leave, earning a tiredly excited smile. “Ready to go home?” Brock smiles fondly at him.

 

Tyler sits up, waiting long enough for the doctor to unhook him from the machines. “Yeah, definitely. I miss Craig,” he whines out.

 

“I know. That’s all you’ve said for the past three days,” Brock rolls his eyes, but his affectionate smile is still in place. “I should probably text Evan to let them know we’re coming back,” he mutters to himself, pulling his phone out of his pocket.

 

“Let’s surprise them,” Tyler suggests, bright smile on his face as he walked over to Brock.

 

Brocks nods in agreement as he puts his phone away, watching Tyler closely as he moved towards him. “Can you walk on your own okay?” he asks.

 

Tyler pauses to glare at him. “If that’s secret code for ‘let me touch you’, I’m good,” he replies, walking to the door and opening it.

 

“Yeah, I just can’t keep my hands off of you,” Brock drawls, following after him, keeping a watchful eye on him just in case.

 

“I know I’m sexy but damn Brock, you’ll just use any excuse to get your hands on me,” Tyler chuckles as he walks to the elevator, watching his footing.

 

“Hey Tyler, have you been working out lately?” Brock asks, playing along and gently taps his bicep, grinning widely to let him know that he’s only messing around.

 

Tyler glances over at him, matching his smile. “Evan’s gonna be pretty bummed, then,” he notes as he pressed the button for the first floor.

 

“He’ll be okay, he knows I’m not being serious,” Brock shrugs lightly, leaning back against the wall, and then smirks a little. “His arms are more muscular than yours anyway.”

 

Immediately, Tyler frowns at this. “You keep talking like that and I’ll walk out of this elevator alone,” he threatens, folding his arms across his chest and managing to hide the pain decently well.

 

Brock chuckles a little. “It’s okay, Tyler. I’m sure Craig loves your arms just the way they are,” he says, smiling softly at him as the elevator dings onto their floor, and he waves for Tyler to lead the way.

 

Tyler walks ahead, muttering nothing more than a “He better,” under his breath as he walked out of the building, barely waiting long enough for Brock to finish the discharge papers.

 

Brock finds them a cab, and holds the door open for Tyler, telling the address to the driver as he does so. Tyler climbs in after him, more than excited to see Craig again. As they’re driving through the city, Brock asks the cab driver to stop outside a pharmacy so he could run and grab some iron supplements and bandages too since he was running low, and the second he climbs out of the car, Tyler’s phone buzzes.

 

_Craig: are you going to be home soon? I can’t walk on my own yet and Evan keeps insisting on carrying me everywhere. He’s making me feel like we’re kids again and it’s driving me up the wall :/_

Tyler jumps out of the car, refusing to let Brock go alone when he knew Sark was still out there somewhere, pulling his phone out as he did.

 

_Tyler: yeah. Promise._

_Craig: good, I miss you <3 _

Brock lets Tyler follow after him as he wanders through the store to find the items he needs, and once they reach the counter, he eyes the lollipops on the counter. “Do you want me to buy you one?” he teases, lightly nudging him.

 

Tyler glares fiercely at him. “Almost home. I have something there I can lick,” he winks, looking back at his phone to text Craig back before looking up to search the store for Sark.

 

_Tyler: I miss you too <3_ 

 

Brock rolls his eyes at him and after a moment’s thought, buys two for himself and Evan anyway, before leading the way back to the cab. Tyler follows him closely, letting him get back in first before glancing around suspiciously and getting in.

 

It doesn’t take long for them to reach Evan and Craig’s apartment building from there, and Brock pays the cab driver as soon as they arrive, letting Tyler lead the way inside. Tyler eagerly walks in, turning back and looking at Brock. “You go in first, so they’re not suspicious,” he says. “But word has it my boyfriend is out of commission, so you’re more than welcome to Evan,” he shrugs.

 

Brocks chuckles a little, his cheeks heating up. “I’m not going to leave you in the hallway for that long, Tyler…”

 

Tyler rolls his eyes, stopping at the door and unlocking it with his key. He doesn’t say a word, silently walking through the apartment until he finds Evan on the couch in the living room. “Hey,” he smiles softly.

 

Evan looks up, surprised when he hears them enter the room, and then grins brightly the second he lays eyes on them. “Hey! I didn’t know you were getting out!” Evan exclaims as he hops off the couch to meet them, eyeing Tyler up and down to make sure he was okay. “How you feeling?”

 

“I’m still alive,” Tyler replies, walking over and hugging him tightly.

 

“Good,” Evan mutters and squeezes him tightly in return, before pulling away and nodding towards Craig’s door. “You might want to say hello to him. He wouldn’t stop asking about you, as if I knew more than he did,” he tells him, and then smiles fondly at Brock to greet him with a hug and a kiss too.

 

Tyler eagerly walks around him, gingerly pushing Craig’s door open and leaning in the door frame. He stays silent for a moment, watching him. Craig’s in bed, lying on the side as he taps away on his phone, bandaged foot peeking out from underneath the covers, the visible bruises on his skin looking as if they were beginning to fade.

 

“I’m fine, Evan,” Craig sighs exasperatedly, not bothering to look up.

 

“Not even a little bit happy to see me?” Tyler frowns. “I might as well go back to the hospital,” he pouts.

 

Craig’s head snaps up at the sound of his voice, and he looks surprised for a second before his face breaks out into a grin. “Tyler!” he exclaims, and forces himself out of bed, hopping on one foot over to him, then all but falling into him in his haste to hug him. Tyler easily catches him, pulling him tightly against his chest.


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is just sex so if you're not comfortable with it then we made this chapter skippable.

“I missed you so much and I was so fucking worried about you,” Craig mutters into his shoulder, tightly wrapping his arms around him.

“I know. I missed you, too,” Tyler gently kisses his head. “That fucking hospital was so boring,” he groans.

“Are you okay now though?” Craig asks, looking up at him with concern before eyeing his arms and his side.

“I’m fine, unless you’d rather feel me up and see for yourself,” Tyler offers.

Craig knows that he has to be at least half joking, but he’s curious and concerned and nods anyway, gently tugging him towards his bed, as he hops over. Tyler follows him, laying on his back and watching Craig, as though analyzing him for any damage. Craig straddles his hips, careful not to accidentally sit on his still healing wound, and takes his left arm first, gently tracing his fingers over his scars.

“Do they hurt?” he mutters with a frown.

Tyler watches him. “Not the first time I did it, but now… kind of,” he admits, gently pulling Craig’s shirt up with his free hand.

Craig gently lays a kiss on one of his scars before helping Tyler tug his shirt over his head. His chest and stomach are peppered with bruises of various sizes and colours, and thin precise cuts were drawn into his skin in neat patterns. Craig shifts a little, very self conscious, and stares at the wall above Tyler’s head.

Tyler stares at them in silence for a moment before softly murmuring,“God, I’m so sorry,” and setting one hand on his hips.

“Don’t be, it’s not your fault,” Craig says and leans down to softly peck him on the lips. “They don’t even hurt any more… most of the time…”

Tyler doesn’t respond, gently kissing him back and letting his eyes drift to the scars wordlessly, playing over Evan’s heartbroken crying and Craig’s tortured screams in his mind. Wanting to take Tyler’s attention off his scars, Craig kisses him again more deeply this time, hand sliding under Tyler’s clothes to gently stroke his thumb over the scar on his side.

Tyler snaps out of it immediately, welcoming any chance to erase his mind. His stomach twitches when Craig touches his scar, but he doesn’t stop him. Craig tilts his head to deepen the kiss and slowly and gently lowers himself down on top of him, careful not to hurt him, or hurt himself in the process. Tyler grips at his hips, willingly opening his mouth for Craig’s tongue. Craig slips his tongue into Tyler’s mouth, sliding it against his tongue and humming against his lips.

One of Tyler’s hands brush against his zipper, not quite pulling it down but reminding him where his hands were as he let Craig lead the kiss. Craig moves to kiss down his jaw to his neck, mumbling “take off your shirt” against his skin, hands travelling further up to his stomach.

Tyler groans softly, sitting up and pulling his shirt off. “Happy?” he hums, lying back down again.

“Very,” Craig smiles satisfied, and kisses his neck again, slowly making his way down to his collarbone, hands resting on his waist. The closer Craig gets to his collarbone, the more frequent and louder his quiet groans get, hands slowly unzipping Craig’s pants. Craig hums to himself and helps Tyler thumb off his pants, hands returning to his hips before he continues kissing his way down his chest, stopping to gently suck on his nipple.

The sounds Tyler is emitting are by now caught between a moan and a whine, too quiet to be distinguished as he gently strokes Craig’s dick through the thin fibers of his boxers. Craig gasps at Tyler’s touch, pausing for a moment as his eyes flutter shut, before continuing his trail of kisses and licks down to Tyler’s stomach. Craig doesn’t get much further before Tyler slides his hand into his boxers, stroking him a few times.

Craig moans, stopping in his tracks as Tyler strokes him, lightly resting his forehead against his chest. “Tyler…” he groans, voice a little hoarse.

Tyler bites his lip, wrapping his hand around Craig’s dick and quietly mumbling “How much time did you spend thinking about this while I was gone?” as he glances down at Craig.

“Every time I jacked off,” Craig replies, squirming on top of him, breath quickening.

“I was gone for like three weeks,” Tyler hums as he strokes Craig.

“I jacked off a lot,” he tells him, reaching down to unbutton and unzip Tyler’s pants. “I’ve been stranded in here pretty much the entire time. There wasn’t a lot to do but think about this, and what I wanted to do with you.”

Tyler grins at this “God damn was ‘I miss you’ an understatement then,” he muses to himself, glancing down to watch Craig.

“You spent every waking moment with me for days straight, fuck me on my couch, and then I didn’t get to see you again for another three weeks, of /course/ I was going to miss you a lot,” Craig explains, gently tugging down Tyler’s pants and his boxers, glancing down at his dick for a second before glancing up at Tyler again, as if silently asking permission to continue. Tyler does nothing more than wink at him, reaching down tangle one hand in his hair.

Craig hovers over his dick for a second, before skipping past it entirely and kisses up his inner thigh instead, gently licking at the soft skin. Tyler groans quietly, breathing out a soft curse. Craig smiles to himself, a little proud that he was managing to elicit such sounds for him, and lightly scrapes his teeth against his skin, nipping him gently but never biting down. Tyler throws his head back, whimpering out the tiniest “Fuck,” that Craig almost doesn’t hear.

“You okay?” Craig hums, smirking to himself before gently sinking his teeth into his skin.

Tyler gasps, voice turning needy in seconds. “Don’t stop,” is all he says in reply.

“But I haven’t even started yet~” Craig sings, obviously enjoying this a little too much, before finally sucking on the tip of his cock. This elicits the neediest whimper yet, Tyler biting his lip and glancing back down at Craig, as he all too slowly engulfs more and more of his dick, humming quietly as he sucks and licks at his skin, hands gently gripping his thighs. Tyler moans at this, hand tightening in Craig’s hair ever so slightly.

At this point, Craig is deep throating him, and he reaches for his own dick, letting out a muffled moan as he begins stroking himself. Tyler’s moans only get louder, melting into whines of “Fuck, Craig,” and needy whimpers, as Craig continues to suck and lick at him, tongue trailing up and down his shaft. Tyler’s loud moans melt into desperate whimpers and gasped breaths, implying that he’s much closer than he’s willing to let on.

Craig licks his way down his dick, sucking on his tip for a moment before engulfing him whole again, quietly humming to himself as he bobbed his head. Tyler barely manages to moan out Craig’s name before he chokes on his words and cums, moans filling the room. Craig obediently swallows, hands tightly gripping his hips until he finished and he pulled away, smiling proudly up at him.

Tyler gently grips his chin, barely mumbling out a “C'mere.” Craig crawls up to him, grinning brightly, and falls to his side. “God damn, you’re good at that,” Tyler softly praises him, leaning over and pressing a gentle kiss of his forehead.

“I just wanted to make you feel as good as you made me feel,” Craig says softly, cuddling up to him, hand on his chest. Tyler wraps his arms around Craig, keeping a strangely tight grip on him. “I love you,” Craig mutters, kissing his cheek.

“I love you, too,” Tyler replies, suddenly reminded of something. “I told you that every night we left,” he recalls, glancing down at Craig.

Craig blinks up at him surprised. “Really? I only heard you the last night…”

“You weren’t awake the other nights when we left,” Tyler points out, gently rubbing his back.


	22. Chapter 22

After a moment or two, Tyler changes the topic entirely. “What did they tell you?” he asks, glancing over and seeming the slightest bit worried.

 

“What did who tell me?” Craig mutters obliviously, snuggling up closer to him.

 

“Max,” Tyler harshly growls out, as though the mere name pisses him off.

 

Craig tenses up, swallowing hard as the memories of what happened to him flooded back. “I… I don’t think you want to know…” he says quietly, frowning to himself.

 

“Craig. I can handle it. I’ve been through a lot of shit this month,” he points out.

 

Craig doesn’t say anything for a moment, clearly reluctant to have this conversation, then takes a deep breath. “…I was just about to leave the apartment that day you told me you got shot when the door flung open and in walked two guys I’ve never seen before. One of them looked way too excited to see me and started giggling, and I instantly knew it was the same guy that you told me about. His friend grabbed me, the really tall one, took one look at all the hickeys you had given me, and they said something about how I wasn’t who they were looking for but that I would do just as well before hauling me outside and throwing me into their car…” he pauses.

 

Tyler leans over to kiss his forehead, rubbing soothing circles into his back. Craig relaxes a little into the touch before continuing. “I don’t… really know where they took me to be honest, but the rest of their gang was there, including that guy that mugged me, and he seemed… disappointed? And that’s how I found out that they were actually looking for Evan, because he said something about me not being the cute brother. I was just confused and scared out of my mind because I had no idea what was going on…” he pauses, and then adds “Don’t tell Evan that though. I don’t think he’d take it too well if he knew they only grabbed me because he wasn’t there…”

 

Tyler pulls Craig into his lap, “I won’t,” he murmurs, smothering Craig’s neck in kisses as he talks.

 

“They handcuffed my hands behind my back so I couldn’t get away, and the tall one- Sark, I think? kept ahold of me the whole time, while everyone else tried to figure out what to do with me because I wasn’t who they wanted originally, and they didn’t seem to care that they were discussing all of this in front of me. They uh,” he swallows hard. “They actually thought about… about killing me for a little bit to send a message or something, but Max changed his mind last second just as Nanners held a knife to my throat,” he takes a shaky breath to calm himself down, tightening his grip on Tyler as he tried to keep himself together.

 

Tyler’s kisses turn to bites when he brings up their almost murdering him, but he calms himself down and starts kissing his neck again.

 

“I was so fucking scared, and I had no idea what was going on, and I think it showed because Max saunters up to me and asks me if I knew why I was there. I just shook my head because I had no fucking clue, and then… then he starts asking me about Evan. He kept asking me if I knew what he did for a living recently, and when he realised that I was confused, he just laughs and starts going on about this gang Evan’s apparently a leader of, and keeps telling me about this car theft operation he was leading, and that Max didn’t really care about it at first, not until Evan shot one of his gang members, and then it became personal.”

 

Tyler pauses at the car theft and frowns at the shooting. “I shot him, too,” he almost pouts.

 

“Yeah, that’s what the mugger pointed out, but up until then, they pretty much only talked about Evan. He uh… he said you were a good kisser too,” Craig grumbles, obviously annoyed, but he pushes past it. “So then they tried to figure out who you were, and started asking me questions, and I didn’t tell them a damn thing Tyler I swear!” he gulps, voice shaky. “And- And when I wouldn’t tell them anything willingly… they pulled out the knives. I think- I think one of them googled Evan or something at one point because they did manage to find out everything on their own and I thought they would stop hurting me because there was nothing left for me to tell them, but they didn’t. They just… kept going…” he says, eyes beginning to tear up.

 

Tyler shifts, cupping his face. “I am so fucking sorry that I let this happen to you,” he gently murmurs, smothering Craig’s face in kisses. He quickly changes topic. “Are you jealous of Syndicate?” he asks, cracking a tiny grin at how cute he found it.

 

“No, I knew it meant nothing to you considering you shot him over it,” Craig smiles a little in spite of himself. “I just didn’t like the thought of him kissing you is all,” he admits softly. “…There’s… there’s more…” he adds quietly. “Evan called me around then, which Max thought was fantastic, and he starts talking to him on speaker, and then entire time Nanners is just…  yeah…. and I was in too much pain to really understand what was going on, and I just… really wanted to be back home with you and Evan again…”

 

When Tyler speaks, his voice is soft and broken at the memory. “You wouldn’t stop sobbing, begging for Evan. Screaming in pain,” he buries his face in Craig’s shoulder, debating telling him any more. “Evan was furious, kept screaming at Max and sounding pissed as hell, but as soon as he hung up that phone…” Tyler trails off.

 

“He what?” Craig asks softly. “I… I passed out pretty much, but what happened to you two?”

 

“I gave it like two hours waiting for you before I got up and came back, not that Evan or Brock wanted me to go cause if I moved too much I’d risk pulling the stitches. We got here, and I… I knew. Evan called you, and Max picked up.  Fucking taunted us, all we could hear was you screaming in pain. Evan called him like three times in a row whenever he hung up, but once he was done, he just… started sobbing into my shoulder,” Tyler doesn’t once shift or look at him.

 

Craig’s grip on him tightens ever so slightly. “I’m sorry I worried you two…” he says softly, frowning harshly, heart twisting painfully at the thought of Evan crying over him.

 

“I had to drag the fucker back to Brock’s place because Max said if we didn’t go meet him, Brock was next. We got there and Evan just sobbed on his chest, and I…” Tyler stops, his mood changing. “Nothing,” he mutters softly.

 

“You what?” Craig asks, looking up at him curiously.

 

“I’m not gonna tell you,” Tyler replies, voice oddly soft.

 

“Why not?” Craig asks, a little concerned. “I really don’t want there to be any more secrets between us… I’m kinda sick of secrets…”

 

“It’s not a secret. Go ask Brock or Evan if you wanna know so bad, I’m not gonna talk about it,” Tyler replies, seeming to hate the memory.

 

“At least tell me why you don’t want me to know?” Craig frowns.

 

“I didn't… take it well,” he hesitantly replies, shifting away from Craig.

 

Craig doesn’t press him any further, not wanting to force him to tell him about something he clearly didn’t want to talk about. “I’m sorry if I scared you,” he says softly, and reaches to hold his hand. Gingerly, Tyler accepts this and takes his hand, saying nothing. “But hey, it’s all over now. I’m safe, and you’re alive, and everything is okay,” Craig smiles at him, squeezing his fingers in an attempt to comfort him. Tyler squeezes his hand, but the faraway look in his eyes hints that he’d lost in thought. “Tyler?” Craig asks concerned, shifting closer to him.

 

Tyler looks over immediately, blinking at Craig. “Hi,” he replies, looking him up and down.

 

“Hi,” Craig chuckles, lips tugging up into a smile, amused. Tyler matches his smile, but something about it seems almost strained.

 

“I’ll, uh,” he mutters, getting up and pulling his pants on. “Be right back,” he ventures out into the living room, exploring the house to see if Brock and Evan were still here.


	23. Chapter 23

Brock and Evan were in the kitchen, cooking something or other, chatting idly. Evan looks up from where he was sitting at the table, tearing his attention away from watching Brock at the stove to glance up at Tyler. He sighs heavily. “Do you think… do you think you could keep it down the next time you two do shit like that when I’m home?” he frowns, ignoring Brock giggle at his annoyance.

 

Tyler watches him for a moment almost sadly. “I’m sorry, Evan,” is all he mumbles, but it feels completely unrelated as he turns and walks away.

 

“Wait, Tyler!” Evan exclaims, hopping off his chair to follow him, gently grabbing his wrist to stop him from walking off. “What’s going on?” he asks, suddenly concerned.

 

He turns, pausing for a moment to debate. “Nothing,” but he doesn’t walk away, instead patiently waiting for Evan to let him go.

 

“It doesn’t sound like nothing,” Evan frowns, looking him up and down. “Spill.”

 

“I can’t get his screaming out of my head,” the sentence comes out faster than he can think not to say it, and judging by the look in his eyes, he hadn’t meant to say anything.

 

Evan’s expression turns sympathetic, and his shoulders sink a little. “I can’t either,” he admits quietly. “Brock doesn’t understand, and just keeps telling me that he’s okay now, and like… I get that, but it still won’t go away…”

 

Tyler is silent for a long time. “I envy you, Evan,” he finally concludes. “You know less,” and he pulls his hand away and leaves. Once he’s in Craig’s room, he speaks up again. “They’re still here, if you want to ask them,” he tells Craig.

 

Craig considers it for a moment, then shakes his head. “If you don’t want me to know, then I don’t want to know,” he says, smiling softly at him.

 

Tyler walks over, gently kissing his head. “I don’t care whether you know or not, just… I’ve relived enough bad memories for one day,” he reasons, sitting on the edge of the bed beside Craig.

 

“I have too, so let’s just… lie here for a while?” Craig suggests, wrapping his arms around him as soon as he sat close enough.

 

Tyler frowns, as though disappointed. “I was kinda hoping we could go sit with Evan and Brock, so I could scar your brother some more with all the pretty noises I can get out of you,” he glances over at Craig, playful look in his eyes.

 

Craig just laughs. “You’ll scar Brock too if that’s what you’re up to,” he hums, kissing his cheek.

 

“No way, Brock thinks it’s hilarious,” Tyler grins.

 

“Of course he does,” Craig mumbles, shaking his head affectionately. “We can go talk to them if you want, but you’re going to have to carry me,” he points out, reaching for his abandoned underwear and pulling them on.

 

“Sure,” Tyler agrees, always eager to fuck with Evan.

 

Craig tugs his clothes back on, and as soon as he’s ready, wraps his arms around Tyler’s neck, fully expecting him to give him a piggy back ride. Tyler smiles affectionately, slowly getting up and ignoring the twinge of pain. Craig tightens his grip on him a little and kisses his cheek, smiling to himself. “I love you,” he mutters again.

 

“I love you, too,” Tyler returns as he walks back into the kitchen, setting him down in the chair across from Evan.

 

Evan immediately looks at Craig’s neck, and sighs heavily when he spots the new red marks. “And your last ones were fading too,” he mutters, shooting Tyler an indignant look before taking a sip of coffee while Craig chuckled sheepishly.

 

Tyler fakes insult as he sits beside Craig. “What? Don’t you like them?” he asks as he leans over and bites Craig’s neck again.

 

“Tyler!” Craig attempts to scold, but he gasps at the same time and the sounds ends up coming out as a sort of strangled moan, and Evan quickly looks away.

 

“I’m never going to get used to that,” he mutters to himself, shaking his head.

 

Brock looks over the heads of both brothers straight to Tyler and raises an eyebrow at him, silently wondering if he was okay after carrying Craig like that.

 

Tyler is grinning beside Craig, but he looks significantly weaker than he did ten minutes ago when he was out talking to Evan. “One way to help you with that,” Tyler shrugs, leaning over and biting his neck again.

 

“For fuck’s sake, Tyler…” Evan mutters, focusing his attention on a random spot on the wall in an attempt to ignore Tyler and the little squeak Craig let out as a result.

 

Tyler just grins, getting up and walking over to the living room. “Which one of you irresponsible dicks left the tv on?” Tyler calls as he walks over to shut it off.

 

He can vaguely hear Evan and Brock discuss which of them could have possibly done it in the next room, but the voices become muffled when a figure from behind the door shuts it, and Tyler’s gaze is met with hard, glaring blue eyes. “Guess who’s got ammo now, bitch?” he asks, pointing the gun directly at his chest. “And I don’t recommend calling for help, or I might just pull the trigger.”


	24. Chapter 24

Tyler’s eyes narrow. “How the fuck did you get in? How long have you been here, fucking waiting for me specifically to walk in?” he asks, meeting Sark’s gaze.

 

“Fire escape,” is the only explanation he offers and takes a step closer. “Though I understand what you mean now when you told me that your boyfriend makes some pretty nice sounds.”

 

Tyler’s eyes narrow in fury. “Don’t you fucking touch him,” he snaps, daring to take a step closer.

 

“I haven’t decided whether I’m going to or not yet. I might have a friend or two that would be very willing to touch him for me though,” he hums.

 

“What’s your plan here, Sark?” Tyler demands, glaring him down. “Do whatever you want to me, I don’t care. Just… don’t hurt them,” he gestures to the door behind him, not wanting to turn around and see who Sark had brought with him.

“Ooooh see, I can’t promise that,” Sark pouts. “Y’see, Tyler, buddy,  _pal._ You and your best buddy out there took my family away from me one by one right in front of my eyes. What the  _fuck_  makes you think I won’t do the same for you?”

 

“That you won’t have to. You and I both know how much I mean to them,” Tyler reasons. “They’ll go berserk,” he pauses when he hears someone dart up to his side, glancing over to see a faded mop of purple hair and smiles. “Hi, Syndicate,” he sighs, earning a broad grin. “Coulda done worse, Sark,” he praises.

 

Sark chooses to ignore Syndicate for the time being, sole focus on Tyler. “I see where you’re coming from with that little plan but here’s the thing: I only want to hurt you and Evan the same way you two hurt us, make you assholes suffer the same way we did, and that means shooting the people that mean the most to you right in front of you and making you watch. I don’t  _care_  about how your little boyfriend feels, I don’t  _care_  what happens to him, he’s not the one I have a problem with.  _It’s you_.”

 

“Then take it up with  _me_ , motherfucker,” Tyler snaps. “Just, not so close. They’ll get suspicious soon,” he glances at the door, then back at Sark.

 

“I’m counting on it. Syndicate here is going to shoot anyone that walks in that door, aren’t you Syndicate?” he hums.

 

“Hell yeah!” Syndicate agrees, walking back to the door.

 

“So yeah, I’m perfectly fine with doing this right here, right now. In fact, do you know what would be fun?” Sark asks, nodding towards the door. “If you called for your little boyfriend to come in here and we’ll both get to see how good of a shot Syndicate is.”

 

Tyler narrows his eyes, leaning in closer. “Fuck. You. I’m not bringing Craig anywhere near this situation,” he growls.

 

“Well too bad, because I’m not leaving until he’s dead at your feet,” Sark says, glancing down at the floor as if he were imagining it. “Do you think he screams just as nicely when catching a bullet with his face?”

 

With that, Tyler crosses the distance and socks him in the face. Syndicate jumps, but keeps his gun on the door like Sark has asked him to. The punch to the nose seems to stun him for a split second, clearly not expecting it, and he looks at Tyler for a moment before pointing his gun back at him with a sigh, this time pressing it against his forehead. “You’re a feisty one, I’ll give you that,” he mutters.

 

Tyler glares him down. “You’re not going to fucking touch him if it’s the last thing I do,” he growls out in a deadly serious voice.

 

Just as Sark opened his mouth to speak, Evan’s voice came through the door. “Tyler? You okay?” he asks concerned, voice getting louder as he got closer to the door and gripped the handle.

 

“I’m fine,” Tyler replies, going deathly still. “Go… go check on Brock, or Craig. Just… fuckin’ leave me alone,” it comes out snappier than he intended to, but he’s almost sort of glad it did.

 

“You don’t sound okay,” Evan frowns, but respects his request for space by not coming in.

 

Sark stays quiet and waves for Syndicate to lower his gun, and mouths to Tyler to ‘let him in’.

 

Tyler glares at him, debating disobeying the order. “Hey, uh, Evan?” he calls, glancing over at Syndicate as he lowers his weapon. “I,uh… I need to talk to you,” he bites his lip, desperately wishing he wouldn’t come in.


	25. Chapter 25

“What’s wrong?” Evan asks concerned as he pushes the door open, freezing on the spot when he spies Sark and Syndicate. Sark waves him to come in, gun still pointed firmly at Tyler’s head, and Evan slowly does as he’s told, not wanting to risk getting Tyler killed.

 

“It’s a party now,” Sark grins as Evan shuts the door, shooting him a cold hard glare.

 

Syndicate grins, nudging Evan with his gun and pacing circles around him. Tyler stays silent for a minute, the guiltiest look in his eyes as though he’s just murdered Evan. “Should we fill him in?” Syndicate asks, looking over at Sark.

 

“What the fuck do you want?” Evan ask harshly. “What could we possibly have to give you?”

 

“Peace of mind, mostly,” Sark shrugs. “You two killed my family, I figured it would only be fair if I returned the favour,” he explains, smirking a little as he watched Evan’s face fall as he realises exactly what that meant.

 

Syndicate continues his almost playful banter, nudging Evan. “What? I don’t know why you’re so scared, it’s not like you have two ‘family’ members in the other room,” he taunts, grinning when Tyler’s eyes flash up to glare at him.

 

“They’ve done  _nothing_  to you,” Evan points out, glare returning when Syndicate pointed out he was scared as he attempted to hide how fearful he actually was.

 

“No,” Sark hums. “But you two have, and since I want you two to suffer the same way me and Syndicate here have, then that means they have to die. Shame really, they seem like good people that probably have a bright future ahead of them. It’s unfortunate they’ll never get to see it.”

 

Tyler turns to glare at Sark. “If you think I’m going to let you any closer than where you’re standing, you’re out of your fucking mind,” he growls, fist clenching as he tried not to punch Sark again.

 

“That’s okay, I’ll just let someone else get close to them instead,” he smirks, and just as he finished speaking, a gunshot could be heard from the kitchen, immediately followed by a scream.

 

Evan’s face noticeably pales, and not even a moment later, the living room door swings open again, and Brock steps in, hands raised, Nanners poking a gun into his back as he drags Craig in behind him, both unscathed. “Miss me?” he grins, glancing between Evan and Tyler.

 

Tyler glances between them, as though checking for damage. “You have about three fucking seconds to put them down before I put  _you_  down,” he seethes in rage at the sight of Nanners.

 

“That’s a nice play on words. I’m impressed,” Nanners giggles a little and then nudges Brock as if they’ve been friends for years. “I didn’t know he had it in him!”

 

“Do you really think that attacking anyone in this room is a good idea considering the amount of guns we have compared to you?” Sark asks, eyebrow raised. “You lay a finger on any one of us, and everyone else pulls the trigger and then  _bang! Bang_! You have two dead friends just because you couldn’t keep your hands to yourself.”

 

Tyler glances at Evan, seeming unconvinced but out of further ideas. At the mention of guns, Syndicate perks up and nudges Evan’s chest, setting one hand on his shoulder. Evan shrugs his hand off of him, glaring him down.

 

“You know, you never did choose between Evan and Craig,” Sark muses. “Maybe you deserve a second chance at making that decision, and I’ll let you choose which one gets to watch his brother die,” he thinks aloud, ignoring how Evan turned his glare on him and not paying any heed to the terrified look Craig shot Tyler.

 

Tyler looks over at Sark, shoving his hands into his pockets and sighing. “Always with the tough questions, huh, buddy?” he asks, as though he’s known from the start what his answer is as his hand tightens around the knife in his pocket.

 

“Hey, hands where I can see them,” Sark orders, nodding down at Tyler’s pockets.

 

Tyler opens his mouth to snap “Bite me,” but he spots Craig out of the corner of his eye and shuts his mouth, reluctantly letting go of his knife and pulling his hands out of his pockets.

 

“Better,” Sark says, looking him up and down, and turns to face Syndicate. “If Tyler isn’t going to choose which of them dies first, why don’t you? You’re the one who got fucked over the most, after all,” he muses.

 

Syndicate looks over with a smile, lowering his gun and standing in front of Evan as though assessing him. “I mean… maybe,” he tilts his head, speaking to Sark and Nanners. “He’s sexy as fuck, but he wants to die too much. Can’t have him getting his wishes,” Syndicate taunts, kissing his cheek and moving on to Craig.

 

He only has to look over Craig for a few seconds before his decision is made. “He lives. He’s petrified as it is, plus he’s too… soft. He’d die if anything happened to Hotpants,” Syndicate glances up at Nanners, as though for confirmation.

 

“Oooooh do you want me to do it~?” Nanners sings, pointing his gun away from Brock to point it at Evan instead. “Because I mean, he did  _stab me_  and  _choke me out_  and stuff, and I didn’t really appreciate that too much, gotta be honest,” he shrugs lightly.

 

“I should’ve fucking shot you while I had the chance,” Evan mutters to himself, remembering the many instances over the past month where he’d considered shooting him but didn’t, not noticing the way Brock seemed to be slowly reaching towards his back pocket.

 

Syndicate giggles quietly, walking over to set his hand on Evan’s cheek. “Ah, murder is  _no fun_ ,” he shakes his head, gently kissing him and frowning to himself, muttering under his breath how 'Tyler was more fun’.

 

A gunshot echoes in the room, catching everyone off guard, and Evan stops for a second to check himself for any bullet wounds, surprised to find himself unscathed. Nanners drops to his knees, blood staining through his shirt, and revealing a trembling Brock with a pistol in his hands, the very pistol Evan had left him with weeks before. Nanners falls to the ground in a heap, dragging Craig down with him as he was still holding onto him, and Brock wordlessly points the gun at Syndicate, who stands silently with a face of unmasked horror.

 

“…Well, fuck,” is all Sark has to say, and he considers pointing his gun at somebody else, but keeps it firmly at Tyler for the time being.

 

Tyler watches him carefully, reaching into his pocket and grabbing his knife, speaking up. “Sark, there’s, uh, there’s one thing you never quite learned,” he tells him, taking a step closer to him and not stopping until he was only a few feet away.

 

“And what’s that?” Sark asks, eyes narrowing as Tyler put his hand into his pocket. “What did I tell you about keeping your hands where I can see them?” he frowns harshly.

 

“Don’t. Fucking. Touch. Craig,” he hisses in fury, enunciating each word clearer than the last as he takes a step closer with each word. Once he’s only a few inches away, Tyler pulls his knife out and sinks it into Sark’s chest, twisting it painfully. “Does it hurt, you dumb motherfucker?!” he snarls, shoving the knife as deep as it would go into his skin.

 

Sark screams as the blade is buried into his chest and he clenches his jaw, pulling the trigger in a last ditch attempt to kill Tyler too, and clipping his shoulder. As they scuffle, Evan snaps into action and grabs Syndicate, pulling him into a headlock while he was distracted.

 

Syndicate squeaks in terror, watching with wide eyes as Tyler attacks Sark. “Fuck him up, Sark!” he yells, not wanting to admit how scared he was for his friend.

 

Tyler pins Sark to the floor, clutching his shoulder. “Fuck!” he hisses, shutting his eyes tightly to block out the dots in his vision. “Ev-Evan,” he mutters out weakly, hand clenching tightly to stop the blood as it poured out.

 

“Tyler?” Evan asks, watching him concerned, debating with himself as to whether or not he should let go of Syndicate to help him as Brock shoves the gun into his hands and dashes off to grab the first aid kit.

 

“Tyler?!” Craig repeats, much more panicked than Evan, and slowly crawls away from Nanners’ body in his direction.

 

“Take… take care of him, for me,” he mumbles softly, hand clenching around the knife’s hilt briefly before loosening as he collapsed to the floor.


	26. Chapter 26

“TYLER!” they both called out simultaneously, and Craig scrambled much faster to his side. “Tyler! Tyler, wake up! Come on, you’ve survived much worse than this, don’t die on me here,” Craig panics, heart beating hard against his chest as he carefully rolls Tyler onto his back and presses his hands against his wound in a feeble attempt to slow the bleeding.

 

Syndicate distantly chuckles to himself, proud that Sark had succeeded in his dying moments. Tyler doesn’t stir, eyes barely twitching at Craig’s voice. His breathing was shallow at best, when he did breathe.

 

“Tyler come on, please wake up, like you did back in the car, remember?” Craig pleads with him, his voice wavering. “Don’t- don’t-  _don’t do this, don’t leave me, I need you_ ,” he whimpers as Brock rushes back into the room and gently nudges him out of the way to start checking out his wound, but Craig doesn’t go far, still staying close enough to grab his hand. “ _I love you_ ,” he adds softly and quietly, squeezing his hand tight.

 

There’s almost no response, save for Tyler’s hand weakly curling around his, and the small action is enough to give Craig hope that he’ll be okay and he squeezes it even tighter still. “Please be okay, I don’t know what I would do without you,” he murmurs quietly, tears in his eyes, gaze locked so firmly on Tyler’s face that he pays no attention to Brock putting pressure on the wound to stop the bleeding, and barely notices Evan pointing his gun at Syndicate and finishing off the last of the gang members.

 

Tyler twitches at the gunshot, eyes clenching shut and, with enough effort, opening briefly. “How bad is it, doc?” he mumbles, voice almost nonexistent.

 

“It’s not as bad as the last wound of yours I had to take care of,” Brock smiles down at him. “Though I’m not sure how I feel about being known as your doctor now,” he jokes lightly, before asking Evan to fetch him some water to clean the wound with.

 

“Lying’s bad for your health,” he rasps out, eyes tiredly drifting to Craig and he almost smiles.

 

“Tyler,” Craig whispers, eyeing him worriedly, vice like grip still clamped around his hand.

 

Evan returns with a bowl of water and a sponge and hands them to Brock, allowing him to clean the wound while he tugs Sark’s body out of the way and into the corner, shooting Tyler concerned glances as he cleans up a little. Tyler is already drifting back out of consciousness, blinking his eyes long enough to focus on Craig and whisper out a soft,“I love you,” before his eyes closed.

 

“Tyler!” Craig exclaims again and lunges forward to cup his face, lightly patting his cheeks in an attempt to wake him back up. “Tyler! Tyler please, stay with me. Stay awake, don’t-  _don’t go_ …” he cries, and Evan stops what he’s doing to watch this unfold, holding his breath and biting his lip. “Tyler-” Craig chokes out, burying his face in his chest as he began to sob. Unsure of what else to do, Brock rushes cleaning the wound and reaches for the needle and thread to start stitching, desperately hoping that closing the wound would be enough to keep him alive.


	27. Chapter 27

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reminder that this fic starts out as a story Evan is telling Craig, so go back and read the first chapter to get context, as we will be returning to the beginning scene since they've finished the story.

Just as Evan was reaching the end of the story of what had happened months before that he was telling Craig in their kitchen, Brock stumbles in, half asleep. “Good morning,” Evan greets him with a lovestruck smile, and watches him as he crosses over to him to peck him on the lips, the conversation he had just had with Craig already forgotten.

 

Craig sighs, a little annoyed that he didn’t finish, but didn’t mind so much as he knew what happened from that point anyway and didn’t particularly want to relive it. “Evan left your breakfast in the microwave,” he tells Brock, pushing his own now empty plate away as he downs the last of his coffee.

 

“Were you talking about the gang thing?” Brock asks curiously as he presses some buttons on the microwave to heat up his now cold eggs and bacon.

 

“Craig wanted to know about everything that happened when he wasn’t around, and he filled me in on some things too,” Evan explains and then sighs heavily. “Some of which, he could’ve kept to himself…” he frowns, trying to shake some of the mental images he now had of what Craig and Tyler got up to on their own out of his head.

 

“Sorry?” Craig smiled sheepishly at him, smile fading quickly to be replaced by a sad smile at the memory of Tyler that night as Brock chuckled at Evan’s displeasure.

 

Their conversation is just loud enough to drown out the almost silent sound of the front door opening and closing, locking behind whoever had just entered as they walked into the kitchen and paused, having not expected to see anyone.

 

Evan spots the newcomer immediately, and gently kicks Craig under the table to get him to turn around, earning himself a small glare for his efforts. Craig looks over his shoulder at whoever was standing behind him, and his face lights up. “Hey,” he greets, smiling brightly.

 

He wastes no time in walking over, gently biting his neck and murmuring “Hi,” against his skin.

 

Evan rolls his eyes as Craig hums pleasantly. “I’m still not used to that,” he mumbles under his breath, and Brock laughs as the microwave beeps and he takes out his plate.

 

“You always say that,” is the bored mumble Evan receives as the man sits beside Craig. “What did I miss?” he asks, noticing the look in their eyes.

 

“Just reliving the night you almost died…” Craig mumbles sadly.

 

“You also missed breakfast,” Evan pipes up. “If you had come home twenty minutes earlier, I might have made you something,” he smirks a little.

 

Tyler gets up to kiss Craig’s cheek, rolling his eyes at Evan. “Late dinner,” he corrects, then adds “I’m going to bed. Long night,” and tiredly shuffles off.

 

Evan bids him goodnight but is quick to shift his attention to Brock when he sits next to him, but Craig ignores them both in favour of trailing after Tyler. “Bad night at work?” he asks curiously, following close behind him.

 

“Always,” Tyler grumbles softly, shedding his clothes as soon as he opens Craig’s bedroom door. “You’re not around,” he points out, turning around to wrap him in a tight hug.

 

“Cheesy fucker,” Craig mumbles under his breath, grinning as he allows Tyler to pull him against his chest. “I hate waking up when you’re not here…”

 

Tyler hums quietly, falling back against the bed and taking Craig with him. “I know. I asked them about changing shifts,” he replies softly, arms wrapping tightly around Craig’s waist.

 

“And?” Craig asks hopefully, cuddling up next to him.

 

“Guess who gets to sleep in?” Tyler hums, grinning down at Craig.

 

Craig looks up at him excitedly. “Really?”

 

“Really,” Tyler confirms, tilting his chin up and capturing his lips.

 

Craig smiles into the kiss as he lightly grips his shoulders. “I love you,” he mutters against his lips, thumb stroking the now fading scar.

 

Tyler just smiles. “I love you, too.”

**Author's Note:**

> Didn't name these chapters when I wrote it, and I won't now. This fic literally wouldn't have been written without Caora to write almost all of it, so please leave all your praise for her. She is, however, pretty much completely retired from the BBS fandom, so don't go bothering her to make more fanfics (even if she is the god of this fandom). This fic is already finished, it took close to four fuckin months to write I'm just gonna upload as much as I can in one go (hopefully all of it) so you just sit back and enjoy!!


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